Total solar eclipse prep! (March 31, 2024)

Eclipse glasses. Photo filter for phone. Sam Hurt sun/moon embrace cards and total eclipse postage stamps. Moon pies! All set for April 8. Rain is forecast....fingers crossed for clear skies at eclipse time.
 

Evening primrose (March 31, 2024)

The evening primrose was in full bloom at the end of March. I wish the native Texas wildflower would bloom for more than a few weeks. Once they go to seed, I'll spread seeds along the side of the house for next year.
 

Robot food delivery (March 28, 2024)

 We saw this one at Mueller when we were at the Alamo Drafthouse for a Community Clinical Research office party. We saw Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, the 1936 film with Gary Cooper. Very funny and holds up well after nearly 90 (!) years.

 The bots use cameras, lidar, and ultrasound sensors to make deliveries at up to 15 mph. A behind-the-scenes remote operator monitors progress. You place your order, the robot makes the pick up, then delivers your pizza or cheeseburger or whatever. They can drive in traffic or in bike lanes. This one stopped before running into us on the sidewalk.

Still some things to work out though. Such as people hitching rides, knocking the robot over....I apologize in advance for the cursing (done by a human, not Austin the robot).

https://youtu.be/1Uc0c5HcRkI?feature=shared

New vs old (March 26, 2024)

 

Our back door neighbor on Palo Duro. Yes, someone lives there.

Their front yard. Fridge, table, chair, birdbath....

Our front door neighbor. Will our back door neighbor become this someday? Yeah, maybe gentrification is a good idea.

Happy 13 plus a day, Fox! (March 24, 2024)

Fox and me, a day after she turned 13. She brought baklava rather than cake to celebrate.

Fox's eclipse nails

The birthday girl

 

Fox checking out Zephyr on the fence

Time to deliver sugar syrup to the apiary (March 23, 2024)

In the Spring, bees need supplementary sugar syrup to build the hive population. You dissolve 12 pounds of sugar in a gallon of boiled water to get two gallons of syrup. We give each hive a gallon of syrup per week until late May or mid-June. By then, they're collected enough nectar and pollen to sustain the hive for a bit. Then, more sugar syrup during the summer dearth of flowers. Colette decided to check out the sugar syrup box. She's not supposed to hop onto the island!

Bluebonnets and other wildflowers were in full bloom at Cornerstone in mid-March. We'll be adding four hives in April for a total of 8 hives. Each hive produces 30-50 pounds of honey. We'll probably only harvest about 5 pounds per hive at the end of June. Still, 40 pounds....
 

Remember the Super Drum? (March 2024)

 Tom and I were both at Bruce Springsteen's April 15, 1988 concert there but we didn't meet until 1994. Did we sit near each other? Could we have met six years earlier? I was there with Sharon and Connie, my Williamson County Sun co-workers. 

The Frank Erwin Center, where so many of us enjoyed sports and entertainment, is being torn down to make room for expansion of the Dell Medical School. The boys and I saw Hulk Hogan there, I think in the early 1990s. 

In 2022, entertainment moved to the Moody Center. 

RIP 1977-2024

Winding up SXSW (Saturday, March 16, 2024)

"Good morning!" from Daddy's hibiscus. It's happily living in our sunroom four years after its long trip here from Shreveport in March 2020.

We wound up our SXSW 2024 experience with live music at Stiles Switch, our neighborhood BBQ joint. 

Bye-bye wristbands!

 

SXSW (Wednesday, March 13, 2024)

Our annual SXSW lunch at Guero's Taco Bar. The tents through the window are at Guero's garden where live music is played.

 Such great salsa! Pico de gallo, salsa verde, salsa rojo. 

SXSW 2024 (March 8-17, 2024)

Wristbands? Check. Graph of films, times, locations? Check. So many films, so little time! Day 1 for us was Tuesday, March 12, due to my high school reunion the weekend before.

W

Hank the Cowdog? I interviewed the author about 35 years ago either when I worked for the Austin American-Statesman or the Williamson County Sun. And yes, the car has a tail.

Hank's tail. He's parked in the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar parking garage. Free parking for SXSW attendees! 

Long lines at Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar. "Townies" like us (with our $120 wristbands) wait for a couple of hours to get in about 10 minutes before showtime. But only after the out-of-town "badgies" (about $1500 per badge, but you get to attend the high-tech conference, see bands live, plus films) are disgorged from Uber and Lyft rides at the last minute and let in ahead of us. We saw a lot fewer scooters this year. Ride shares seemed the favored way to go.

Q and A with director after "We Were Dangerous," a New Zealand film about a home for delinquent girls on an isolated island in the 1950s. They rebel against their matron in an attempt to be free.

The Doodle bus. I should probably know what this in in reference to. Is there a show called Doodle?
 

Lunch with the siblings (Sunday, March 10, 2024)

Well, darn it! We didn't take a photo of the Sistas with the Bro. Martha, Craig, Tom, Donna, and me met Martin at his place then had barbecue at J-Bar-M. Martin enjoyed the J-Bar-M benedict: poached eggs on avocado toast with brisket. 
 

Colton's comedy performance (Saturday, March 9, 2024)

Colton kindly booked a show at the Oak Street Brewery so we could finally see him perform. Check out his hilarious bits on YouTube at Colton Patterson's Fun Time Happy Hour.

We had flights of beer. We'd hoped to try their Hogan Hefeweizen, but it's seasonal and it wasn't the season. We'' go back!

 

53rd High School Reunion (Saturday, March 9, 2024)

23 of our graduating class of 111 met for brunch at Broz Adams' house. The grandbaby that was due any day waited until Tuesday to arrive so we didn't have to scramble for another location on Saturday. Very thoughtful child!

Between brunch and dinner, Tom and I visited the Tree of Life at Audubon Park. If you climb the tree, you can see giraffes over the adjacent zoo wall.

The tree is believed to have been planted in 1740. When you hold an acorn, you hold a tree.

I love Spanish moss. The branch in the foreground is also from the sprawling Tree of Life.

Beryl Tullier and I were in a carpool together for our three years at Benjamin Franklin High School. She's a retired CPA. Interesting that we're at our 53rd reunion following our 1971 graduation. Most of us, born in 1953, are 71. (Twilight Zone music).
 

Headed to NOLA (Friday, March 8, 2024)

At the Baytown Buc--ee's, on I-10 east of Houston, we tried to get a selfie with Buc-ee. But the sun was so bright we couldn't see the phone screen. Here's our best shot....

It's the Easter Buc-ee!

Blah!  Took 1.5 hours to cross the Mississippi River Bridge in Baton Rouge. Arrived in NOLA way too late for a po-boy from Parkway.

Not sunset or sunrise. Natural gas flares across from Lake Pontchartrain outside NOLA.
 

(Princess) Zephyr gets her very own post (March 2024)

Zephyr likes to survey the outside world.

 

"Good fences make good neighbors"--Mending Wall by Robert Frost (March 7, 2024)

The fence between our yard and Shari and Lisa's has been falling down forever. We were thrilled to see them putting in a new one. And 8 feet tall!

Section of the old fence, through the sunroom window.

The new fence will be straight.

 New fence on the east side

Neighbor's remodel on the west side.
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The owl and the pussycats (March 2024)

The owls are back for a second year. Oliver and Olivia are nesting in our next door neighbor's pecan tree but regularly perch in our elms. They hoot back and forth with owl friends who are several blocks away. The squirrels have either skedaddled or become dinner. Papa's happy for his tomato garden.

Are we as interesting to watch as a Netflix series? We're often peered at through the kitchen window. The owl and the pussy-cat might have danced by the light of the moon in the nursery rhyme, but our kitties are in at night, safe from coyotes and, er, owls.