I finally got the ceiling panels painted in the carport and screen porch.  I'm trying to knock out some of the big projects before late june.

three generations of Wang.  kat walked her mom around our place in wimberley.  this is near a giant oak cluster towards the back.

pass the baby

we had a men's (my father, uncle ralph, #1 son and myself)  trip to cooper's bbq in llano.

you often hear about bringing the outdoors in.  this is more like bringing the indoors out; watching HDTV outside.

we often watch birds while eating breakfast.  the kids were so engaged in a red cardinal out there that they stayed after their bowls were empty and turned their chairs toward the nature show.

went to eeyore's birthday party.  Hsin-hsin and #2 son got to meet leslie. 

this poodle grabbed their attention longer than eeyore did, poor eeyore.

many fairies, some dark and some not so dark.

many jugglers and kids on unicycles

eeyore's friend tigger using her cell phone.

marijuana man

we enjoyed locally produced live oak hefe weizen  and real ale brewing co. fireman's #4 there was also this odd smell in the air, sort of like somebody was bbq'ing a skunk.  reminded me of my glaucoma medicine.

the drum circle was a force of it's own.  the thumping and clanging could be heard from a great distance.  I liked the fry pan and wrench technique.  you tube is full of clips from circles of the past.  the 08 was very dense with people and less dancing than this video linked here.

 another youtube of eeyore's crunchy hippie happiness here

kids enjoying the creek along pease park 

the things you find when you look down. 

we had a BIG thunderstorm and some hail roll through early this morning.  I saw two humpback whales in the clouds just before they cleared.  this is the view from our master bathroom. 

I received a new order of tile.  I had many requests for "masculine" or "warm colors"

I'm happy with the selections

see that cusoms delayed my product and charged me for their service.

very cool stainless steel tile!

glass tile (hand was included to show size difference)

this glass tile really makes a bold statement.   

I have some tiles that mix glass with stone (marble).

I sell the tile through a retail location in the design district IF+D 

just because it was friday.  his school had a jump house, petting zoo, pony rides and a train set up in the parking lot.

while we were in the design district, we stopped in DWR 

#1 son was smitten by yasuko, my brother's GF he brought out to audtion for the family.  we gave him/her two thumbs up.

even when on vacation he still had duties as restaurant owner/manager.  in the pic above he is on the phone placing his wine order for his restaurant back in napa. 

tacos al pastor

smoking the good stuff

another opportunity for you to come up with your own caption.  reminds me of a cake decoration.

we're running out of places to put this.

OK, everybody look at the wine.

these are feet.  notice how they all have the same number of toes.

hey!  they have furniture.  now where will jenny the german exchange student do her sunset cartwheels? 

pass the baby.

more looking at wine.

the whole family came out that day.

after leaving the grove wine bar we had one of those austin moments.  we stopped at the new HEB store on the way home.  the cashier noticed that my brother, yasuko and I all had on black shirts.  he inquired, "are you guys on the way to a Cure concert?"  

we had no idea what he was talking about and I was a little confused since I do in fact have eight tickets to see the Cure this June.  he pointed out the black clothes and broke into song "show me, show me, show me how you do that trick, the one that makes me scream..." 

and he wasn't just sort of singing, he was fully antimated and sang the whole time as he scanned our groceries.   back in baltimore, the cashiers couldn't even muster up a greeting or a "thank you".

mom is all moved into her townhome.  we went on a hike along the trail that runs outside her back door.

we made a round about trip to the airport.

I was excited to have my brother and yasuko here so I could have somebody to drink wine with (she's currently working at mondavi)  turns out they get plenty of wine in napa and they wanted margaritas, chips and salsa.  those are the areas where the rest of the country is clearly lacking.

boarding a plane is easier if you shed the sobriety. 

 last night we attended a gallery opening for our friend; artist Sharon Kyle Kuhn

I was a bit bummed that I forgot my camera.   

art, food, wine, friends and even a great band played at the event!  you know I was happy.

music provided by the mediums  they really were great.

kat's mother is staying with us and was getting bored.  she started to knock down all the dead cedar branches and we were concerned that thinning of the forest would make the area more transparent.  we don't want to see into the neighbor's yard and we certainly don't want them to get a gander at us, our back walls are mostly glass.

so, she created this giant wall near the back of the property line, just before the chain link fence.  this wall is around five ft tall, two ft deep and thirty ft feet in length.

she's been spending hours a day out there pulling, dragging and lots of kicking.  she can do a kung-fu kick almost to the height of her own shoulders.  those branches had to pay. 

(photo courtesy of sarah laborde) 

I took her over to casa laborde for a crawfish boil.  she displayed great skill as she could hula hoop WHILE eating corn on the cob.  I can't even hula hoop and I'm not that great at corn on the cob.

I also attended a nice wedding shower for steve and cecile.  hans dare ga-nome observed from his side of the ravine.

yesterday was a big celebration for the 50th anniversary of Eanes Independent school district.

the new HEB store up the street provided this box with stickers that can be rewarded for prizes.

I informed number one son that when you find a human in a fur suit it is acceptable to sneak behind and tug the tail.  we did just that.  I was scolded by my wife for setting a bad example...?  maybe it's just a cultrual difference.  

westlake high school had some remote control robots.  number one son took to piloting the robot like a duck to water.

he also went down the slide.  principal cathy miller keeping control of the gate (right side).

PILGRIMAGE TO HANS DARE GA-NOME:  I got a call yesterday afternoon "there are people over at the gnome right now!  OH MY GOD, THEY HAVE REMOVED THE SPOT LIGHT!!!"  I got the play by play as we were very anxious to see what was going to happen to Hans Dare Ga-Nome.  they inspected everything very cautiously and eventually put the spot light back exactly where it had been.  then they started to take pictures with him!  below is a 200x zoom pic of these gnome pilgrims taking a pic.

photo courtesy http://melindamccoy.com/ 

the guys from shelter design and construction came back and built us a platform/deck/island on what was to be our green roof.  we'd found that it was proving problematic to grow grass on the whole surface and still be able to use it.  so we opted for an island surrounded by green roof.

the colbond green roof material is finally unwrapped.  (we have an extra roll if anybody is interested)

we got this sucker to carry up a bunch of soil media

the thing about cutting your own hair is that you can't quite get the back straight.  it's never been a concern since I can't see it anyhow.  then somebody goes and takes a pic... ehh, I still don't care.  I didn't have to pay anybody for the crappy hair cut.  OK, back to the house stuff.  quit looking at the back of my head.

dirty work

we laid out a variety of ground cover and sedum in the full sun areas.  we'll have to see how it works out.

the local airstream dealer convinced me to let them sell our 1970 safari for us.  I normally take care of this sort of thing myself but time is limited and they get a lot of traffic through there.  often people find that the new airstream they want is $50-80k so a used one doesn't look so bad, and they can finance the sale at the dealer.

it was hard for me to leave it there.  I put a lot of work into it and we had many good times in it.  sure, we have a replacement that is slightly larger for our slightly larger family.  but as I speak today, the replacement is still a POS that will require a hundred+ hours of work to get up to working condition.  all the while we are talking daily about summer trips we would like to take.  

#3 is doing well.  has gained weight and grown 1.5 inches.

my mother in-law is here for a month to keep my wife company, help around the house and hold the baby.

we've been blessed by friends and family who have come together to make sure we have everything we need.  we've had two cribs driven in from hundreds of miles away, gift baskets with clothes, diapers and blankets, packages in the mail from my cousin and the swing featured above.

the bed above was purchased for cheez the cat who was likely eaten up by coyotes.  it's made a nice baby bed.

my mom has purchased a townhouse that is ON the greenbelt.  the pic above is taken from the living room.  there is a trail right on the other side of that oak and a nice swimmin' hole just 100 yards hike down.

the traditional bubbles to rid the space from any evil spirits.

friends brought over a nice bottle of champagne.

I heard our orange gnome friend; Hans dare ga-nome, did no become illuminated last night.

 it was very overcast and his lighting is 100% solar powered.  the sun is shining now so I must go over to observe his status tonight, and we do get thirsty while observing Hans dare ga-nome from the balcony across the ravine.

over here at austinmodhouse we were pleased to get our latest electric bill.  when is the last time you heard somebody say that?  THIRTY SEVEN DOLLARS!  it seems our high r value construction along with mild temps and a 6 kw PV system is all working in our favor.  that also involves two computers running an average of 12 hrs daily. 

 UPDATE:  we had plenty of sun and the solar light did come on and brighten up our evening.

7.1 lb 19.5 inches

everything went smoothly

number one son was upset once he found out he was to come to the hospital AFTER his brother came out.  he want to see the ejection.  he got over it and is in awe of how small and cute his new brother is.

he opened both eyes right away and just stared at us.  maybe we are not what he was expecting?  he's been very hush about the whole affair.

clear coat has been stripped and skin polished

has a brand new zip dee awning

front cabin windows have been tinted 

recent new alloy wheels, tires and brake and bearing service

I ran power to this outdoor hatch/storage.  kept powered sub and two satellite speakers in there.

lets go inside 

new upholstery in a midcentury modern style.  maple hardwood flooring and VCT entry to catch foot traffic dirt.  

this table extends long enough to easily seat six adults.  curtains are a charcoal gray.

this safari has the vista view windows.  I've also installed a five speaker system.  the sub is mounted in the cabinet above the fridge and the two far speakers are mounted behind the original speaker grills on either side of the control center, the center speaker sits below the LCD monitor and the L an R are to either side.

the seat backs fold up to create two long twin beds up front. (one on right is folded up).

the view from the front, through the kitchen towards the bedroom.  here you can see where the speakers are mounted.  the lcd is mounted on an articulating arm and gets tucked back and strapped down for travel.

into master suite

this rear bed pulls out to create enough space for two.

I removed the plastic sink/counter and replaced with stainless steel.  I have the plastic parts if you wish to go back to stock. bathroom door has a new skin that matches the new kitchen countertop.

here you can see the new toilet and the shower area.

bed pulled out for sleeping.

a/c blows cold

in dash dvd/mp3/cd player also has tv tuner.

kitchen has new black counter tops and a new sink faucet.  all four burners work but stove is used for storage.  we had the furnace removed to reduce weight and increase cabinet storage.  we used a small electric ceramic heater if necesary.

all the tambour doors are in good shape.  the fridge works on gas (when trailer is level). have never used it on electric.

kitchen exhaust fan works.  the water heater is new and does a fantastic job of keeping up with demand.  most every light fixture has been replaced and a few new ones have been added.  

I finally got all the trim strips and wood filler painted.   

the rail will be done with paint today or tomorrow.  mom is doing that now.

I made a cover for the all the koi pond filtration and plumbing.  I used a salvaged piece of granite for the dogs to step on when using the doggie door.

I finally got the tile up the wall under the sink.

lots of new growth.  all the effort of the landscaping is starting to show.  kids are trimming off the horse tails that have been blown over by the wind.

pool furniture ready for summer.

new wine bar just up the road, the grove 

she's still holding on.

we've purchased another vintage airstream to restore.  we felt we needed three extra feet since the family is set to expand.  brought our current already restored vintage airstream home to prepare for sale.  $15k anybody?  will try to get a picture set up soon.

mom arrived from CA.  her 69 bmw made the trip in stride.  however, she left the gas cap somewhere just outside of austin.

we were thankful that was the only mishap on her 1800 miles in three days trip.

I took the kids to two easter egg hunts yesterday.

they harvested loads of easter goods

the old egg in a spoon race routine.  my son's egg is mid fall, just above the knees.

notice how jimmy vaughn's twin little girls are both checking out my boy.

I thought she had it in the bag but dropped the egg just feet from the finish.

the next easter egg hunt was held on the hillside while our gnome friend looked from the other side.  here the kids pooled the eggs that had been gathered and shared.

it ended in tragedy.  my son managed to dislodge a log from the hillside and once set in motion, gravity took hold of it.  he said he tried to stop it "but it was too late" .  she got konked in the noggin and had to have the ice pack placed on her head.  they both look so down.  they are young and fifteen minutes later they were back at it.

the 2008 sxsw just ended.  this is a great time to be in austin if you love live music.  you can't buy a twinkie without tripping over some band who is looking for an audience.  bookstores, furniture stores and parking lots are all transformed into stages.

my friends CMoore  and Troy drove in from Louisiana for sxsw and to celebrate my birthday.

first stop was a venue that had bands from lafayette along with free beer and crawfish.  cmoore found a bonus snail in the boil.

slaborde and michael

insert your caption of choice for the pic above

salabaorde in fancy boots

our friend brady blade was in town and played several gigs over the course of a few different artists.  often two in one day.  he's a drummer but for brigitte demeyer he played guitar

found a cool youtube of brady drumming here 

 anyhow, we gave them a ride to his next gig with buddy miller

we might have had a few traffic violations as brady had just fifteen minutes to get from one venue to the next.  brady was sure he was supposed to be at the cedar courtyard and we found it in record time.  but security told us we were at the wrong place.  

we RAN back out on the street and were lucky enough to find Troy circling the block looking for parking.  we then raced to the cedar door.  we stormed the back security gate "I'm with the band" I exclaimed in such a rush they had no chance to stop me (I had no sxsw wristband that is often required for the bigger events).  all this only to find we were once again at the wrong venue.  again, raced out to the street where brady tried to get a cab as he was trying to get somebody on the phone.  his next gig was to start any moment.  we again found troy circling, jumped back into the van and raced back to cedar courtyard.  turns out we had been at the fight place the first time.

brady ran up on stage and within minutes buddy was going at it and they put on an amazing show.  

the next day we went to the farmer's market where they had bands all day.  the band in the background had come from palermo italy.

we found half japanese (jad fair) playing in an alley behind a gift store but we had to get kat home for more bedrest.

the boys were happy to get to guero's

my kids are tired of smiling for the camera

cmoore wrote troy's name on the wall 

saturday eve saw us enjoying wine and cheese with friends.  the gnome shone brightly for us all.

at least once a week we have a sunset watching session with some friends that live here in west lake hills.   you've probably seen some pics if you tune in often. 

I'd often wondered about a white monolith I saw over on the opposite hill.  they hiked over one day to find a stack of rocks.  I hatched a plan to leave my own mark on that hillside.  then last weekend I stumbled on a $5 gnome at the harbor freight sidewalk sale.  I also found a cheap solar powered spot light.

we set off for the other side

we found a small creek with several falls.  she likes to kiss my son.

michael carried Hans down and I lugged him up.  this was at the bottom of the ravine.

the view back to where we came from

found the rock monolith and quenched thirsts

notice how michael's lips are pursed as his mind has now melded with Hans der gnome.  my son watches intently as if Hans is actually about to take a sip.  also, I gave him big freaky oversized eyes in the hopes that I can see them using binoculars.

Jenny the German exchange student was struck with ironic malaise after issuing us the daily cultural lesson on how to properly pronounce der gnome

we all felt a bit sad as we left Hans der gnome all alone on the hillside.  after all we'd been through together.  at least he'll have deer and coyotes to keep him company.

and when we got back we were pleased to find he was highly visible from our observation deck.

now all we had to do was wait for the sun to set.

and from the kitchen we could still see him.  WE SEE YOU HANS!  

YES!  the spot light came on

thank you magic orange gnome, thank you Hans and your wonderful illumination.  now we don't have to face the darkness after the setting sun. 

while you might be asking yourself if this is a newly discovered jackson pollock

(thanks to vanessa from baltimore for the cool link above, the kids still use it)

it was actually created by a 1973 bmw 2002tii that had an oil leak (has been fixed) and a water hose that was left on so the dogs had a good time playing in the mud and leaving prints on the driveway 

kids and I went to a birthday party on saturday that featured the emmy award winning biscuit brothers doing a live show, what fun!

we have come to accept that our older cat; cheez, has likely become coyote fodder.  kay-so is now being allowed to come inside again.  kat is happy.  kay-so only eats her food when one of us is near.  so she comes in and starts meowing till we come down to give her company.  then back outside she goes. 

annual zilker park kite festival!!!!

lots of greasy hippies flying kites

the guy above was determined to fly what appeared to be a sheet of plastic with rope, no sticks.  I didn't see him achieve kite status.  mostly flapping in the wind actions. 

the laborde black shark did not survive the day as was the case for most kites that went up.

winds were very gusty and space was limited.  flights were brief due to constant tangles with other kites.

charm making an offering of guinness to the wind gods

our bird kite lasted for quite a while.  it collapsed and charm did a quick macgyver of it and it was soon flying again with a piece of hubba-bubba as the repair medium (we forgot duct tape) 

my son has it all figured out.  get a kite with a high failure feature and all the girls come offer company

this guy had the same seagull bird kite as us.  my son kept wanting to fly right next to him which usually resulted in their becoming tangled together.  both kites finally broke (the bubble gum patch had a limited life span).  this guy came prepared with tape and soon both were back in the air.  he gave us his broken bird kite at the end of the day.  I had the privilige of carrying it back to the car.

the austin skyline has changed a lot in the past year.  two brand new high rise condo buildings dominate the horizon.

she has lift off!

we went to guero's afterwards.  the guy playing keyboards is in the ninth grade!  these guys are good.  I've paid money to see bands composed of professional musicians that were no where as good as this group of austin high school kids. 

she likes the queso and has developed this two chip method of delivery to get as much as possible into a single bite.

bunch of us had tacos al pastor after the show.  apparently, they will let anybody in that joint.

I saw that modernmama had found this interesting bathroom fixture with "282 diamonds, total carats: 10.24".

I recognized it from the fixtures on the kid's sinks.  except we have water spots instead of diamonds and I think we paid about $40 each for ours.

per request, two more pics of the custom LCD panel mount

I made the left side so it's further away from the wall and pitches towards the center of the room. 

and back to the media room projector

here you can see the size of the diva plavalaguna in relation to the room.  around 90 inch diagonal.

black is true black and plenty of brightness and contrast.  OK, enough about our media room.  I'm on to new projects.  mostly painting. 

we are having temps in the 80's and low humidity.  caught a nice sunset last night.

pulled back the pool cover and some neighbor kids came over for a swim

I have finished my drywall work and removed the plasma flat screen from the media room.  it's been replaced by a true HD 1080p projector.  now the entire wall is a giant tv.  I have not liked projectors before as they usually look washed out and dim, but those days are gone.  we had to get a PS3 blu ray player to visualize the capability of the optoma hd80.  a true cinema like experience but w/o all the other people, parking problems etc.

so then we had a trickle up of AV equipment.  the 50 inch 1080i plasma went to the second floor living room and the 37 inch lcd from there went to our bedroom.  we don't really watch much tv.  usually just one hr after the kids go to bed; dirty jobs, mythbusters etc.  but our bedroom tv was so small that kat would have to get out of bed and stand at the foot to really see it.

so how you mount a big flat panel tv when your wall is mostly glass?

I busted out the welder and fabricated a custom bracket.

and if you don't care to see elementary kids ballroom dancing, back out now

this gentleman even did the water sprinkler (recall a post about a month ago where troy was demonstrating the dance move)  my daughter didn't understand what he was doing and just looked confused.  he gave up and stuck to the moves they'd learned in class.

that surely is the twist, check out his feet.

this was the last dance of 2008 cotillion.  this young gentleman asked my daughter to dance for the last few songs.  afterwards, we were standing outside the austin country club about to leave when he ran up to her and presented her with a small cluster of flowers he'd plucked from the golf course landscaping.  

my son doesn't give a crap about dancing.  he is very confident that he does NOT want to participate in the cotillion when he is old enough.  however, he IS very interested in golf.  he said he wants some "golf sticks". 

we managed to get out for a short hike along barton creek in the lost creek area this morning.

this is really just about 6 miles from downtown.

went to chinatown for Chinese New Year celebration.

this lion has an appetite for money.  it was well fed.

my son really liked the lion, as was evident by the huge smile.

she was a little freaked out by the lion and I had a hard time getting her this close.

lemonade 

rice noodles with duck in a curry sauce.  funny: a few minutes after I took this pic I realized I knew the family in the background from when I lived in baltimore.  I hadn't seen them for more than a decade and there they were at the next table!  and it turns out they have a 3rd grader in the eanes school district too.  the world is getting smaller.

we applied this side with wall paper paste.  it had no fumes but also didn't work so well.

I kicked it up a knotch with contact cement.  the fumes were fan-tastic!

made a grid on the media room ceiling with a chalk line, applied contact cement and start applying the tiles.

next I get to do drywall finishing!  I love working with joint compound!  that must've been the contact cement fumes talking (I hate drywall work)

while my brain was swelling and the contact cement was out, I applied new formica tops to some tables I made more than a decade ago.

I made them back when I was living in my bohemian ar-teest studio loft in an old factory building in baltimore.  the city was shut down from a blizzard and I was in my industrial styled space with no heat.  this was one of the most productive periods of my life.  I've still got several tables I made those few days.  the birch tops were stained using brightly tinted aniline dye that fades in direct sun.

I had some cool 50's style boomerang formica in the garage and it's applied new life to old tables.