Houston Food

We had to make a trip to Houston to see a friend. These were the meal highlghts. Lunch at James Coney Island was mandatory and did not disappoint.


We tried Cafe Adobe & had many of delicious Perfect Margaritas. This was some kind of Shrimp dish on special. Two were jalapeno stuffed & two were bacon wrapped & barbequed. Mmmm good.


I shot a bunch of stuff with the D70 that I'll post after they are processed. Thinking the Steelers might win tonight... we'll see.

BBB

Cardinal

Common birds, but I actually don't have too many shots of them. I saw this bird on Sunday morning after a walk through Spring Creek Forest Preserve.

Caddo Lake State Park

We took a short trip to Caddo Lake State Park last weekend. The weather was pretty nice on Saturday, just a bit cold in the morning. It was a beautiful sunrise.



Some Cypress knees.



Cypress and moss.



A Cypress with beaver teeth marks. In certain areas, all the Cypress trees were eaten like this. The park manager told me he thought it was beavers. I don't know what else it could be.



A few folks were doing some canoeing.



The entrance to the trail system.



And a couple shots of an unidentified bird. (I'll update as soon as I know)





It was a fun trip and I can't wait to get back in the springtime. Here's the full set on flickr.

BBB

Sunset

The sunset last night was amazing. I should have walked inside the house & got my D70. And moved away from the power lines.



Watch out for the Harley rider.



Okay, here's one in focus but still in very low light.



Have a nice weekend. We are headed to Caddo Lake State Park. Maybe I'll get some decent pics. It won't be this sunny, but maybe I can get some decent scary looking black & white pics.

Spring Creek Workday

Last Saturday I went to a workday at Spring Creek Forest Preserve. I've blogged about the preserve before and that's where 90% of my nature pictures last year came from. I was a few minutes late & not prepared for work. It ended up being more of an education & walk, with a few folks doing some real work towards the end. I personally just took pictures & provided moral support. Next time I plan to bring my gloves & get dirty. They are planning a big event the 1st Saturday of March to clear about a 1/4 back to prairie. They will need help, so if you are interested just visit the website for details or show up early on March 4th.

Jim Varnum and a burr oak. (Quercus macrocarpa)


Below J. Rubrecht chops down some privet!


The full set is here.

The preservation society has a website with directions to the preserve.

Porkchops or Briskets

Just browsing the SFA Math website & ran across this picture of one of my old professors. I don't think you can call these pork chops. I would say they are closer to briskets.



Maybe he thinks he's Leonardo?

Happy 2006!

BBB

Soler Arrested

According to the DMN the grafitti artist Soler was arrested. I mentioned him here last March.

Jingle Bells Hidden Message

This is excellent. Merry Christmas to all.

BBB

The One

This is Sam. He & I flew out on a couple of hours notice to Milwaukee to work with a customer. I've been up all night... he's gonna take over around 7am. Fun stuff. Anyway, Shyam is damn good developer and a hell of a nice guy. He was given an award recently & they superimposed a picture of him on Neo's body. Very funny. He's known as THE ONE.



Is it 7am yet?

BBB

Animated GIF

A little animated GIF of my son can be found here. And another one here.

Tom Yum Goong

This is a bit hard to see, but there were some really nice shrimp in there. Not used to having the heads on, but it turned out to be one of the best bowls ever. Guidelive has a review of Jasmine Thai.



Here's a picture of mama.

Little Cousins

My brother-in-law & family recently visited us for Thanksgiving. We really had fun with them & Noah got quite attached to his only cousin. His wife sent me these pics.

Here's a shot of them in his boat.



And one of me taking a picture of the both of them with big old Maggie headless.



Have a nice weekend.

BBB

Halloween 2005

We had a halloween party again this year. It was attended mostly by our friends with kids. Our neighbor was overheard suggesting to some of our other friends that they sneak out and get away from the kids. That so friggin' pisses me off. We won't be inviting her to any more parties. I'm 38 years old & have had plenty of booze-em-up Halloween parties. I still made the killer Chatham Artillery punch, a fresh keg of Shiner Bock, and plenty of other booze. What were they expecting, a bunch of naked people???

Anyhow, on to the pics. Thanks for bearing with me.

In the middle of town, where buildings stand tall, There lives a little man called Fireman Small...



Noah and his Nana Davis still in his jacket.



In his Steeler overalls given to us by "Ponytail Scott", the #1 Steeler fan. Hugging on a girl as usual.



And finally pajamas and sombrero... I have one of him pushing his lawn mower also in the sombrero, but I didn't think that was PC.



A few of the playroom. That old TV was the wife's when I met her in college many moons ago.



As far as lack of posts, I'm just out of it right now. I'll be back.

I Still Love the Astros

Of course the series didn't turn out as I had hoped, but they did have a damn fine year. All the games this series were close & Backe's performance last night was stellar. He put them in a position to win the game & they just couldn't get it done. Pinch hitting for Backe with Bagwell was not the best move in my opinion. Bagwell grounded out & then the next inning Lidge gave up a run & that was that. Backe wanted to win that game all by himself & I think he might have surprised Garner & gotten on base somehow. I hate to say it, but Bags is old & just can't catch up to those high fastballs any more. Maybe he will be better next year, but I'm sure it will be with another team.

Morgan Ensberg. I hated this guy for a long time but then I was a convert towards the end of the season. He was hitting for power and doing it in the clutch with men on base. Then the playoffs started & he went to shit. We were calling him fancy boy during his bleached hair phase... I feel like calling him much worse right now.

It's a long way back, but maybe they can keep it together for one more season and make a run again next year. They won't give up & neither will the Houston fans. I mean, the 1st NLCS ever is a fine achievement. I know that's from the book "Things Losers Say", but it is still true. I got a lot of enjoyment stomping on the baby braves & making pujols cry.

BBB

The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated

Just busy.

Took a trip to North Carolina to visit my parents. This is Noah on the porch of my grandmother's house, known to everyone as "Mama Dell". I think this pic looks great huge... I like it uncropped so I can see the porch I fell off 100 times as a kid.



A gift from a great aunt that lasted about 5 minutes before he broke it.



These cars from the same aunt didn't last much longer. The wheels fell off after a day. Cheap stuff I guess... no biggie. I think this pic is nice because of the natural lighting. I held this still w/o a tripod in natural light in the house. I had to shoot 15 of them before I got one in focus. Lesson... shoot often.



Breakfast at the "City Restaurant" in Franklin, NC. Excellent food and service. Note the Steelers overalls. A very good friend of mine gave these to Noah. I figured the Oilers have been dead long enough so I let him wear 'em. I still had to be very careful not to burn my native Houston skin.



We took a few walks up my parent's road. (cellphone pic)



And played at the Wesley's Park, also in Franklin, NC. (cellphone pic)



Chicken Biscuit before the ride home. (cellphone pic)



This was Noah's 2nd plane trip. (last year we went to Vegas) No problems with him... I was whining more than him. It was just us two on this trip... very tiring, but very fun! This is on the plane on the way back. He loved the window seat.



I leave you with this... GO ASTROS!!!

Cyborg Name

from Iridesce Sent.

Office

For some reason I was recently moved from my cube of the last 4 years to an office. I liked my cube. It was a double & had a desktop going all the way down one side. Made it perfect for a temporary lab. This is more of a typical layout, so I will have to make some modifications. One of those desks is gonna have to go. These things look like they are ancient, so I may do a midnight requisition for a replacement.



Lots of stuff still to unpack & gotta get some stuff on the walls. This office has bad juju so I plan to sacrifice a temp worker next week and again on Halloween. That's after I bash their head in with the hefty red swingline. Thank god tomorrow is Friday.

BBB

Purple

Looks like the Arizona Desert to Me

This mars panorama is awesome.

Get Off Astros!!!

What a game!!!!