Our House and Stevie

Realized I had shown you this sculpture a long time ago and not with our building as a background. Enjoy Stevie again today.

Now is the winter of our disconnect

Lots more fun at stately Ball-Preece mansion. Turns out the main water line between our meter and our house, which ran under our circular drive, had sprung a slow leak. I'll spare you the boring details; but the bottom line is that the most efficient way to fix the problem was to totally reroute the entire pipe through a new trench along the north side of the driveway.

Here you see the old pipe, which had a T-joint near the front of our house. It had to be capped off, which required more digging. (You can see the capped pipe in the very middle of this shot, just below the point of the top yucca leaf.)

Well, whoever buys this house will be getting a lot of nice new infrastructure.

Our Back Yard Band

Here is the French horn player in our back yard band-- we have five musicians in it -- a tuba, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, and (as you see) French horn. The French horn player is the only female.

We commissioned the crafting of these musicians by local artisans years ago and they have given us no end of pleasure. I do love our back yard, but it's like being married to a "trophy spouse." High maintenance indeed. Linda put it beautifully-- we might as well have mulched up $100 bills and used them for fertilizer.

No doubt, I'll miss my musicians when we leave this place next spring to move to the condo downtown, but "some doors close and others open."

It was about thirty years ago today

I guess seeing the stories about Sgt. Pepper's LHCB's 40th Anniversary got me in a sentimental mood. In that vein, here is a shot Linda took not long ago of an art deco clock and some antique pens in our entertainment room. I think we bought the pens at a charity benefit. (We go to a lot of those.) It's a total pain to reset the hands on the clock every time Daylight Savings Time dictates, since the back is held on by some almost invisible little nuts, but it is nice to look at.

As of August, we'll have been in this house for thirty years. We are in the process of winnowing down our inventory of possessions in preparation for the big move next year to a fancy new high rise condo which will have about 40% of the space we enjoy now. As a result, we are faced with making some tough choices about which of our possessions to save and which to dispose of -- either by selling them or giving them away. It's for certain that many knick-knacks like these won't make the cut. Every square inch at the new place will be just too valuable for non-essentials, though we will save a few decorative items.

But because we've grown to love so many of our things, it's painful to say goodbye to them.

Thirty years! So hard to imagine all that time has gone by. And yet, in the course of history it's a speck.

Looking Out Our Window

Here is the view from the back window of our home's entertainment room. We see this panorama when we wake up each day and let the dog out. In this photo, you can see four of our five "band members" who populate our back yard. Left to right: metal clarinet, French horn (small in back), tuba, and trumpet. We do love our big back yard. We have been in this house almost thirty years and it still is a wonder to me when I look at it. (Of course, if you click on this photo you will see a larger version which better shows the French horn and tuba.) The yellow house is a tool shed. Oh-- and the other band member is a trombone player-- but he's so far over to the right in a sitting spot we call the "Zen area" that I couldn't get him in the photo. The French hornist is definitely female, by the way!

Check out other participants in this Theme Day:
Seattle (WA), USA - Manila, Philippines - Albuquerque (NM), USA - Singapore, Singapore - Toruń, Poland - Baton Rouge (LA), USA - Seoul, Korea - Saint Paul (MN), USA - Vantaa, Finland - Madison (WI), USA - Saarbrücken, Germany - Cleveland (OH), USA - Chicago (IL), USA - Cottage Grove (MN), USA - Omaha (NE), USA - Bellefonte (PA), USA - Melbourne, Australia - Stockholm, Sweden - Grenoble, France - Lubbock (TX), USA - Boston (MA), USA - Arradon, France - Hyde, UK - Joplin (MO), USA - Kyoto, Japan - Tokyo, Japan - Kansas City (MO), USA - Naples (FL), USA - Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Manila, Philippines - Sydney, Australia - Stavanger, Norway - Bucaramanga (Santander), Colombia - London, UK - Chandler (AZ), USA - Nelson, New Zealand - Singapore, Singapore - Hamburg, Germany - Sydney, Australia - Tenerife, Spain - Moscow, Russia - Lyon, France - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Villigen, Switzerland - Anderson (SC), USA - Oslo, Norway - Evry, France - Hayle, UK - Mumbai, India - Kitakami, Japan - Wassenaar (ZH), Netherlands - Menton, France - Monte Carlo, Monaco - Los Angeles (CA), USA - Cypress (TX), USA - La Antigua, Guatemala - Paderborn, Germany - San Diego (CA), USA - Ampang (Selangor), Malaysia - Madrid, Spain - Lyon, France - Selma (AL), USA - Shanghai, China - Baziège, France - Cologne (NRW), Germany - North Bay (ON), Canada - Rotterdam, Netherlands - Stayton (OR), USA - Sharon (CT), USA - Austin (TX), USA - Hong Kong, China - Trier, Germany - Joensuu, Finland - Paris, France - Greenville (SC), USA - Wailea (HI), USA - Budapest, Hungary - Cork, Ireland - Bastia, France - Vancouver, Canada - Brookville (OH), USA - Jakarta, Indonesia - Mainz, Germany - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Zurich, Switzerland - Torino, Italy - Montréal (QC), Canada

Red, White and Bleu Dinner.

Here is a photo that Linda shot this February of one of the tables in our big entertaining room set for a benefit dinner called "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner." (I love how our little dog is in the background.) Dinners are held in about twenty private homes around Austin and then everyone meets at a big central location to have dessert. The diners pay to attend and all the money goes to Project Transitions, a local group which helps people in the late stages of AIDS.

We also had two talented local signers, Christine Albert and Chris Gage, come serenade the diners with Edith Piaf tunes. The next day they sang at Governor Ann Richards' funeral which was held in Erwin Center -- a huge venue here in town -- and some of our guests called to say they saw them on television.

The entree, by the way, was Beef Tenderloin Bordelaise with Thyme-Parsley Pesto, Creme Fraiche and Herbed Brie Butter.