Lady Bug, Lady Bug

This giant lady bug is on a mural strewn with shadows. The mural overlooks the playground at a grocery store here that is a part of the HEB chain. It's full of organic and fancy stuff and is meant to compete with Whole Foods. (Whole Foods actually started in Austin.) Besides the big store there is a large cafe, an outdoor deck and a large play area. An it's all adjacent to a little park with a wetland area with ducks and lily pads and a bridge. It was a great place to let little kids run off some steam. Normally not something I have to worry about, but my nieces and their kids have been visiting.

Sculpture for the Pickers

The big party was very crowded at the 360. They'd invited all the residents, most of whom had not had a chance to get inside. And it seems they'd invited every vendor imaginable and friends of the developer, etc. I think we had the most fun at the plaza on 3rd (which is not a through street currently but dead ends into a foot bridge. The guy who did this sculpture in the little plaza was onhand. He said his name was La Paso and the sculpture had a plaque that said 'Killer Riffs' by La Paso www.lapaso.com. In any case, the guitars in the wind looked smart with our building and the AMLI building. A few close friends were also hanging out here, avoiding overcrowded elevators, long food lines and a brisk wind that didn't cool off this late May day on the pool deck.

Soon we will be residents here and I figure they will never have or allow this large a party again. Must have been a thousand people??

It's Your Day, Big Guy

The big guy has his grand opening today. Yep, it's Grand Opening day for the 360. This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago from the north. No one has closed on a unit yet (I believe the first are next week and ours is soon after that), but the party is today. We hope the star is ready for his closeup. There is still a bunch of blather about whether downtown is being overbuilt (see Statesman here) but I think it boils down to this: there is a demand for X condos that are more expensive than out of the central core but affordable to the middle to lower reaches of upper class. There is a demand for Y luxury condos. Y is less than X and yet it seems that the building is skewed the other way. The 360 claims a huge waiting list, running to almost half of the actual units. And the developers who built it claim they are going to start shortly building more high rises downtown. I'll be watching for that from my balcony.

Old Boots?

From the sign (top of the collage) and the window (bottom with FFP window shopping) you would think this boot shop downtown was an old fixture, there for years. You'd be wrong. It is brand new. I figure they selected the name because they want to reflect the old-time custom bookmakers.

This shop is on 8th Street next to a newish cafe called Amsterdam Cafe. I don't know why the cafe is called that either, but I'm sure it's not for the reason many of you are thinking. You can't even smoke cigarettes in a bar here! (Here is a You Tube trip to the Amsterdam.)

Purple House

On our walk the other day we snapped Lucinda Hutson's house. The front yard has lots of herbs and flowers and she isn't afraid of color! (She's even influenced neighbors to use bright colors on their houses.) She is an author of books on herbs and tequila and someone who adds a lot of color to our current neighborhood and the whole community.

Airstream Dreams

In our neighborhood, this constitutes a spare room! Just kidding. Well, sort of. This shiny 'Bambi' Airstream trailer is really cute. We stuck pretty close to our neighborhood this weekend. (For old times since we are moving? No, to pack stuff up!) We were on a walk to the Upper Crust coffee shop on Saturday when I shot this. (Can't work all the time.) The wheels had blocks and the electricity was plugged in so maybe someone was spending a bit of time in it!

Freedom's Just Another Word...

...for nothing left to do. But we had plenty to do last night at the Paramount Gala. Drinks and a performance by Idgy Vaughn followed by the a live auction and the 'really does he need an introduction' Kris Kristofferson. (He wandered on stage during the live auction to sign a guitar then were auctioning off.) After Kris sang for an hour there was food and a band and an auction and more drinks, of course, and we talked to a ton of friends and acquaintances.

Of course, the line "Freedom's just another word" is from 'Me and Bobby Mcgee' made famous by Janis Joplin but written by Kris.

Well, now "there's something in a Sunday that makes a body feel alone" so I'm going to look for some companionship or get something done. Just coffee, not beer for breakfast. Points to readers who get all the KK allusions.