Austin ModHouse

another item we picked up at the city wide garage sale last weekend.

for over a year we'd been looking for a 50's porch glider for better seating on the south facing master balcony.  I sanded, metal etched, primed, painted and replaced the hardware (nuts/bolts). 

we have a nice view!  it's going to be great to get more use of that space.

we had moved the sectional in the media room back against the wall for additional room for the punk rock karaoke holiday party.  the rear surround speakers that hung ON the wall became cumbersome in this arrangement.  I have replaced them with JBL in-wall speakers; old speaker on left, new on right.

the screens and frames were painted to match and it looks really clean.  I can't say it's an audio upgrade, especially since most soundtracks are 5.1 and the rear surrounds are for 7.1. 

things have not gone well with our airstream.  the front end seperation is proving costly to repair.  while we do have very solid flooring, it was not the case where the wood went under the body/wall sections.

you can see about 1/2 inch of the edge of plywood was rotted.  we have little choice but to have the plywood subfloor replaced.  we have reservations to go to south padre island in the spring so...  I need to deliver a bucket of money to our airstream service center and just hope this is the end of our overlander blues.

my brother and his new bride returned from Japan and posted some pics.  this had a profound affect on the dude.  I had a sudden desire to consume sushi while pouring quantities of sake and kirin down the pie hole.  it also resurrected my wanderlust.  I used to travel a lot and now that we are anchored here in austin with work and school schedules...  I am working on getting all our passports renewed.  no way we can make it to asia or europe soon, but we can fly to mexico (mayan riviera) for $80 each way from austin. 

I made my way to the asian food market and got my food/beverage fix.

I made sushi, sashimi, edamame, shitake, sake, udon along with fermented bean curd.... all good stuffs.

kat loves noodles.

#1 son collects beer bottle caps.  at times, I have viewed this as trash hoarding.  but, they do get them out and look at them every blue moon.  they even stack them up like playing with real toys.  I did enjoy sitting with him as we admired the tiny graphic designs that represent the different brands.  notice the star/starburst motif above.  not so different from stamp collecting.  when he notices a new cap featured at the top of some variety in the frigerator he anxiously urges me to hurry up and consume the malty beverage so he can add the cap to his collection.  some times he'll try to entice me after breakfast, "don't you want to drink a beer now, doesn't that sound delicious?"

we estimate her stack above has about 180 caps.  this is usually about the maximum height of the stacking before they crash and I make them clean them all up.

got a new compost bin ($37!).  we had just been piling it up and it was a regular buffet for racoon and opossum.  the new bin locks closed.

kat and I relocated some trees that had been planted too close to the house.  a sad looking cedar that was close to the house had to be sacrificed in the process, it too had been damaged by snow/ice/hail/tornado/hurricane/tsunami/drought/flood/gamma rays...  it had to go.  our oak trees are really starting to benefit.  view above is looking west from the green roof/deck at the far end of the house (opposite end as master balcony above)

sunset pic via iphone was manipulated by camera bag app.  thanks to photographer chad wadsworth for showing me this tool that takes what are often flat over exposed iphone pics and converts them into something much more interesting.