Back "Home"

Well, we made it home safely. It was a long drive. Basically about 21 hours. Whew. But, it was nice and in the end, we drove through like 7 states. We had a little chevy though that got good gas mileage and we had good music and it was a nice weather. Mostly.

We had a very Lego Christmas. Ryley, our nephew, is totally into the lego starwars thing. So, Rob spent his holiday sorting through thousands, and thousands of plastic pieces.

I - went shopping - for glassware. I mean, I am in the glass capital of America right? But, I was surprised that the only pieces I bought were all made in China :(

Come to think of it - so was everything else. I was surprised that these glass pieces weren't even made in America and so when we went back to mom's I checked all the open gifts, and was surprised to find 'everything' was made in China.

Wow.

But we had a great time. There's one picture here of Malcom the fatt cat. He was so cute.

Glad to be home in Austin. Sounds funny to say Home and Austin still in the same sentence. But, it's so nice - there's no snow here!

Michigan for "Chismas"

On a trip to Michigan for Christmas. I put "Chismas" in the title, because we were still giving Rob's Mom a hard time from last years' place settings. Mine said "Chis" and so we've taken to celebrating Merry Chismas.

It was a very long drive.

14 Hours to St. Louis, and additional 9 to Michigan, but I likes to drive. What I didn't like was the snow. We didn't get too much of it thank goodness. But, what we did get slowed us down and so I had to concentrate hard which of course makes you exhausted once you reach your destination.

Stopping in St. Louis was fun! We finally had an opportunity to visit with Rich our good friend who we have been saying we should stop and see but never seem to find ourselves in Missouri!

Now we had a chance.

This picture of Rob was on a particularly sassy cold portion of our trip outside Indianapolis when he was giving me a hard time about how balmy that mid 20's weather is. He likes to play up his midwestern roots sometimes while my teeth are chattering.

Fine.

I simply got the in the car, cranked up the heat and locked the door. He finally said through the closed window that it wasn't that warm outside. I thought not.

There was some snow on the ground. I took this picture over the head of Mom's figurines in the window so that you could see it looks mighty cold outside, because it fricken is! I don't care what these thick blooded Michiganders and Ohioans say. I'm looking forward to hitting the Texas stateline!!

Brrrrr.

Here's a Cool Picture Blog

There's a great site that has photos of the campaign. It includes pictures of the candidates, but more importantly a variety of supporters. Some really, really cool pictures. Take a look!

December in Austin

Well - It's Christmas time and we've been doing the usual. Staying busy trying to set up home - meetings - and work.

We're getting ready to drive to the midwest for the holidays and I've been checking the 10 day forecast for the conditions in St. Louis and Michigan.

Yah.

It's going to be a slower drive than I thought. It's looking pretty wet and cold and so that means we'll be creeping along. But hopefully not so slow that we dont' get there until new year!

Here's a picture of Yoda in a stupid game I got sucked into the other day on the web. And our new roommate Johnny. He's a nice guy and it is so (SO) easy to kick his *ss in Risk - that's it not even believable. But - he's got Mikey our other roommate advising him in strategy. Maybe he should find a new advisor!!

Here's also a picture of Rob in our laundry day the other evening when we were at home and realized over half our towels are trashed! I think I know what we'll use our gift certificate for Linens and Things for (thanks Mom, Rocki & John, Peter & Gina!)

And we dined at whole foods on Sunday. Ahem. Ok - I like whole foods. It's a great place with lots of selection of healthy tasty items. But there's a reason some folks call it whole paycheck. I had an order of sushi, a salad & a cranberry drink. Total? $19.35. Wholly cow! I've spent less on dinner at a restaurant. But, at least we had the birds to watch. They fluff up and dive into the stream to take a bath and boy are they loud too. But, it was a beautiful day.

1st Weekend in a While

So, it had been a while since I had a weekend that I wasn't running 'every' minute. It was nice! We went to San Antonio Saturday night to visit friends and go to a meeting.

We went out afterwards to a great dessert place in San Antonio the "Candlelight Cafe" and here is a picture of us having dinner at a BBQ place on the way that had the best bbq sauce I've tasted yet! Way better than last weekend when we stopped in Elgin.

Then here's Rob giving me his no you may not face. He does this a lot.

Lastly here's a Calvin and Hobbs strip that I thought reminded me of so many folks I know! All is going well here, and I hope it is going well with you too. Let me know!

Happy Holidays from Christopher and Rob

Click on the link above to receive Christopher's holiday greeting. It's fun.

Shut Up! Now I'm Going to Have to Get an XBox

So maybe you know how much we love Guitar Hero in our home. Well, actually Rob loves guitar here (it's one of the games he kicks my butt in every time).



So now there's one coming out called Rock Band and that's great, and that sucks. It's great because in this newer version everyone gets to participate with a lead guitar, bass, drummer and vocalist. It's sort of like Karaoke with a judge. If you hit the wrong notes or words you'll get boo'd off stage.

The only problem is it's on XBox and I don't see a PS2 version. Darn. I don't think I can justify the expense. Especially since we don't have a place to sit while we play!

Hope you're doing well. Check in and say hi!

Will We Ever Find Furniture?

Rob Being Sassy - Again
Originally uploaded by ChristopherSolis.

Alright - it is clear that Rob and I have a difference of taste. I mean - I have all of it, he has none. Well. That's a little harsh. He has some (it's in his mouth).

This has led to some tug-o-war over the type of furniture we have in the livingroom. We both agree on a sectional but where he wants formal, leather upright, stiff and slippery - I want something a little cushier, not necessarily black or chocolate brown and maybe suede.

Which, led him to send me this depiction of Jeannie's bottle with my face inserted and the accusation that if I had my way - our house would look like this!!

Please!

I hate stained glass.

(But, then again - look at how comfy that looks!)

Here's a Fun Game

Flash Element TD

It's Getting Cold

Stars Stars Stars
Originally uploaded by ChristopherSolis.

I've been checking the temperature in Sacramento for comparison purposes and it seems we're very close - but it feels colder here - don't know why.

Maybe it's the moisture in the air? Huh. Or maybe it's because it was like 60 or 70 degrees one night and the very next night it dropped to 40. Nothing gradual goin on here with the weather. Brrr.

I included a link on here where the Mayor of Austin is determined that we're the greenest city in America by like 2020. That's cool. Our city hall is made of recycled materials and all.

I hope this note finds you well. We're doing good with the exception of the cold. We started up the fireplace the other night and it was toasty in no time and of course, I love soup - so I've been making that!

Take care and keep in touch.

Home From Houston

We're back from Houston today after a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. We saw some great friends we hadn't seen in awhile and the road trip was a nice break from the daily routine of Austin and work.

Justin and Kristopher rode along and our friend Brian drove his own vehicle and we caravaned for the three hours from Austin to Houston. We arrived in plenty of time to find good seats and had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner courtesy of our hosts at the Lambda Center of Houston. What great folks!

We checked into the Doubletree and Alicia Dizzy was off and running!! I don't think they've made a leash strong enough to hold Justin. He just likes to move.

The rest of the weekend was filled with great speakers, a fun movie and of course the Musical which was a good time (especially the ad libs!)

This picture of the dining room set was one that we saw at a local store. I really liked it, Rob's reaction was "hmmph".

I'm thinking we may be sitting our plates on our laps for a long time to come because we both have such strong ideas and they seem to be at opposite ends of the spectrum. Although our friend Eddie is going to be giving us a dining room table until we buy a new one.. so at least it beats a TV Tray.

Oh - and we went shopping the day after thanksgiving. Blech. I hate shopping when I know in advance I'm going to have to wade through crowds, but we only went to Macy's in Houston and it wasn't bad at all. I don't think that's good news for Macy's though.

We stopped in Elgin on the way home and had barbeque but we weren't convinced it was the best we'd had. Although the brisket was to die for and sausage was good - the sauce was just so so.

Who knew a Californian would become a critic of Texas BBQ sauce!!

Dan's Smile

My friend Dan got his bottom braces off this week - and I was reminded how excited I was when I got my braces off.

The other thing was - it gave me an opportunity to scold him to remind him to wear his retainer. Although, I hope Rob is not reading this since that is his favorite mantra to chant.

We decided we wanted pizza the other night and it struck us. Where the hell do we go? We haven't had pizza here in Austin and we genuinely were stumped on where to go. So I sent out a text message survey and the largest response came back Mangia's stuffed chicago style pizza.

It was good!

That being said, it was not Zelda's Pizza in Sacramento. Still, we agreed - our favorite pizza.

But the next time you're in town - now you know where to go for pizza.

Here in Austin - the Week Before Thanksgiving

We are in the week of Thanksgiving. I went to a new restaurant this week called Stix. It's a kabob restaurant and it was pretty yummy. But they had Seitan on the menu. Gross. That is a wheat gluten product, with texture worse than tofu (I know. If you can imagine!).

Rob loves this stuff, but it correctly labeled 'glue' as in gluten. It's sticky and yucky and will ruin your kitchen ware. Stay away from it! Lol.

Rob is not so sure about the roommate thing. Until the 1st of the month. Then, he's all for it.

We had to take care of the yard. Well, for those who know me and my allergies - insert the royal 'we' here and know I really mean "Rob". Anyways, we had to clean up the yard since it hadn't been done in a while when the house was up for sale. It resulted in a lot of grass clippings. We placed them in bags out at the curb. Of course - and here's where we rightfully earn the "we" - I asked are you sure that there isn't a limit on these bags for pick up?

I guess not - they were gone when we came home from work. We had a birthday at work today, so I decided to bake a cake. I selected a butter pecan and chocolate - and what a good choice that was. It seems southerner's love them some pecans. Wow.

It was like PECANS so - it was a hit. It was unfortunately mauled though and I'm glad I snapped a quick pic before it was demolished to the point of not even being recognizable as a cake.

Our friend Justin was having a bad day and locked his keys in his car. He's sort of a younger guy with no autoclub or anything so I called triple A for him. They guy came out and opened up his car with something I hadn't seen before. It was like an airbag device that pried the door open enough for him to jimmy the lock open with a hook. It was cool. I got a second opportunity to see this neat method just a few hours later, when he locked his keys in his car.. again.

So, now we call him Alicia (like keyes).

Also this week we welcomed a new addition to the household. His name is Mike and he's our new roommate. Yah - it seems we're still running a house for wayward boys - I know. We keep going around and around on this subject with me always winning. Not that Rob's against the idea (at least not every first of the month - then he's all for it!) But he was hoping we'd have the extra rooms as guest bedrooms/office.

However I was able to remind him we're currently sitting on crates and staring out windows without drapes, etc. Furnishing the 'guest bedrooms' is about the lowest priority on my scale of important things right now and finally.. whew - he agreed.

So Mike is new from Florida and seems like we'll get along fine. He reminds us of Mark, one of our favorite past roommates, so we've been calling him Mark 2.o or Two-Point for short. But... hmmm "Rob, don't we have one more extra room?" I'll start working on him now.

We have a new friend Chad who helped me last week do some decorating. We've all been having fun in Austin and can't wait to travel to Houston this weekend for Thanksgiving.

We hope you're doing well and let us know what you're up to.

Immunity for Telcom Companys? No Way

Telecommunications companies immediately following the 9/11 disaster conceded to the Bush administration and their request to turn over all communications traffic for monitoring. That is , ALL communications. Every - email, every internet search, every click on every website, every telephone call, every cell phone call - all of it.

As part of the governments efforts in tracking terrorists they have undertaken a mass spying on the American public. To its credit, QWEST communications was one of the only communication companies to recognize this was illegal and unconstitutional and said "NO".

To their discredit, companies like AT&T, Sprint, et al. turned over all these records (and in some cases, continue to turn this information over to the government for their mass spy-on-Americans program). Unable to claim ignorance of the law (they are the parties that helped WRITE IT!) they are now seeking immunity from any prosecution or judgement of class action lawsuits based on violating the privacy rights of Americans.

The Bush administration is pushing for this as a payoff for their complicity with his spying programs. The Congress is hesitant, but the Senate has already indicated they are ready to write a retro-active law to shield these companies from illegal and unconstitutional activities.

Exactly how is our legal system supposed to work, when illegal activity on such a broad scale is allowed to occur without any deterrent from future illegal activity. We can be assured that a few large judgements against these companies - and they'd be likely to question any future requests. Just because the President asks, doesn't mean the answer should always be "Yes".

This President, more than any in history, has abused his Presidential authority and the American citizenry has allowed this. We're setting the worst precedent for future generations and administrations. I encourage you to write your state senator and implore them to hold these companies accountable!

Almost There - In the "Home" Stretch

Well, we have to do a walk through this evening. Or, hobble through. I twisted my ankle bad last week at work, and now Rob is accusing me of finding yet another reason to get out of the heavy lifting in a move. If you remember, when we arrived here (or more directly, when our things arrived) - I was in San Francisco. He'll never let me live that one down.

So we have a hobble through this evening and I'm sure we'll look around and say "Yah this is fine. Gimme the key."

Not so fast. There's all that paperwork - even though we've had tons already. But tomorrow we actually do the paperwork and do the real signing.

This tulip on my desk opened up - and was beautiful. I think Lavender Tulips now rank as high as Lavender Roses on my favorite flowers. These were from my co-workers for my birthday. I also got the most wonderful mixed arrangement from Kelly and Anthony so for awhile it was like a florist shop at my desk - but it was very cheery!

Autumn certainly has come 'overnight'. Quite literally it was in the high 80s and evenings high 60s and yesterday I was blasted in the face with cold air and ran back in the house for a coat. It was in the 40s - and I thought I was going to die of cold!

Standing at the bus stop was no fun. Here's a picture of the little turtle pond at work. I'm thinking you can see the little turtle in the middle. They lounge on the rocks and sun themselves. I wonder how they are liking the approaching winter?

Probably not very much I think.

Movie Reviews

How many movies have I gone to that I've relied on that 'professional' movie reviewer to give me insight as to weather I should spend my $10 to see a new release? Now, I never used to rely on these things but maybe, that was when we used to go to the Jerry Lewis Cinema, that was Fifty Cents. But, oops - I just dated myself.

Now that it requires one quarter a tank of gas (in itself an investment) to get into the movies - if the result is I'm going to be bored for two hours or worse, offended or disgusted - I'll at least sort through the various opinions to get an 'indication' of whether it's worth the money or not.

I have no plans to see the new "Why Did I Get Married". But I heard this review on NPR and the reviewer, a producer on the program - was hysterical! I don't need to see the movie now. She painted a good enough picture in how she didn't like it - that I won't have to. Teshima Walker was so animated during this review - I think I got my $10 without spending the $10! Have a listen - I linked it above.

Finally! - I Figured Out What it Was

I Finally figured out what it was!

I wasn't sure. It ran out in front of the truck a few weeks ago when I was driving from San Antonio to Austin. I had to pull over to the side of the road, because it scared me so bad I had to clutch myself.

Now - things have run in front of my vehicle before - Jack Rabbits, possums, skunks, racoons, snakes (althought not technically "running") squirrels, rats, dogs, cats, small children, even an armadillo. (oh and a stray gator in Louisiana).

But because I didn't know what this thing was - I was a little shaken.

Then, I was having lunch with another California transplant who was telling a horrendous story about how his dog killed one of these things. He didn't know what it was either. It kinda looked like a wild boar. Turns out it's not even a swine relative at all. A neighbor told him.. "yep. that's a hav-ah-leen-ah" (you know. in that slowish texas drawl).

Well, he didn't know what to do with it either. In Sacramento - I don't know I've ever had a dead Javalina in the front yard - stinkin up the place. (Apparently - they smell way before they're dead).

So my California-transplant friend called around to find out what one does when one has a dead Peccary fertilizing the lawn. It appears from our fine folks at animal control - or the Texas equivalent of - that what ya need isn't an animal control professional. What ya need - is a buzzard.

Now, I've seen these. When driving down a back road through hill country with the top down, you occassionally see them circling. You can even see them take flight from the road - which is a warning that there's one of them there Peccarys or armadillo's that didn't dodge a pickup truck fast enough. They are big birds! And ugly.

Sure enough my California-transplant friend waited and after a few days, like a prophecy spelled out ona ouja board, the buzzards came! In just a days time, no carcass left! So - there ya go. For all of my friends in California who wouldn't know what to do if a Javalina was in your yard or what was even is - consider yourself educated.

Moving - Again (But Locally This Time)

Well we are looking at buying this home. It's in North Austin which is a little further than we hoped but like Sacramento - you have to go out a little bit further to get the price you can afford. This isn't so bad though. It's in a nicer neighborhood than many of the closer ones are that we looked at. And, there's an express bus nearby that goes right to UT without stops.

It seems like a nice neighborhood - so I think we'll be ok. It will be nice to have a garage to park our vehicles and just in time for winter!

Hope you're doing well. Let me know!

Nearing the End of A Texas Summer

Well, since we are arriving at the end of August. I can't imagine that September could be hotter than this. But, it's all relative. We've had hot summers in Sacramento - so I could be just as hot there.

The students are back this weekend for school starting next week, and I have not witnessed such an influx of population before. It's amazing. Just, people people people!

This weekend was the "Flugtag". It's an event sponsored by the Redbull Drink folks and they built a huge ramp on the edge of the river and spectators go out and watch people drive, run or jump contraptions meant to simulate short flight into the water. It was kind of funny. Here's a video recap:

Texas Graffiti

Well... It could happen anywhere I suppose. So, it's not necessarily indicative of Texas, Austin, or even our neighborhood. I think, it's more likely however - when you live next to a high school. Everyday the little buggers, bless their fricken hearts, tramp through our apartment complex to the delight of.. of.. well no one actually.

And they spread their teen cheer amongst the masses, sometimes in indelible marking black felt pen.

I came out to find lovely poetic phrases all over the complex.. the dumpsters, the speed limit signs, my truck!

Originally this said "F... Studio". Don't know what that is. Perhaps it's a hip-hop group, perhaps it's someone's boyfriend or girlfriend, who totally dissed them in geometry class. Or, maybe it's someone who hates art class. (Small wonder based on this artistic piece).

I tested this product called "graffiti gone" on the IO in studio and stood back to see and this is what was left, so I took a pic. Anyway, it's all buffed and waxed out now. But - I did gather some stares on the way to the detailer. Some of them admiringly.

ILife 08 - The "I" Stands for Inconvenient

Oh no they di'unt.The new iLife 08 from Apple is abysmal. Save your money until they do some serious fixing. We rushed out and plunked down short of $100 for this "new" version with cool new features.

Now, I'm speaking primarily of iMovie. Because although Rob loves iPhoto (I've never been a huge fan) I use iMovie for all my editing and fun film making hobby adventures. But what the box DOESN'T SAY is that for nearly every cool new feature, they've removed immensely important old ones.

There are no more special effects options. None.

You can no longer slow motion down, or speed it up. You can not put little star burts in, fog, lightening, anything. Anything.

There is no precise audio editing. None.

You used to be able splice clips - audio seperate from video, move them around adjust volumes. There's no more fade in or out. None.

There's no more volume or clip length windows. You formerly were able to see the layers overlapped in a separate window and adjust the various positions of them in relation to each other to create sound precisely where you wanted. But you can't do anything like that. Anything.

You can no longer adjust the transition length. Before, being able adjust the transition length you could provide impact or exclamation with the video right where it needed to be. Now you must set all of the transition lengths simultaneously rather than individually.

There's no shorter way than to use the word 'sucks' to describe what Apple has done to our program. They are apparently offering to let you download the old version from there site.. so now I get to run both, move back and forth between two applications to try and obtain the movie I want. THIS is an improvement??

I've decided the "I" in iLife stands for Inconvenient. Damn inconvenient. Maybe they should call it DiLife.