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| The indoor hot springs called Indian Springs are surrounded by lush flora. We met the gardener, Ken McNickle, who was a contestant on Survivor and listed in Cosmopolitan magazine as one of the 50 hottest bachelors in America (!). He also works with the homeless in Denver through a nonprofit he founded, HumaneKind. |
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| Very happy gigantic yucca plant |
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| I wonder what these hanging blossoms are? They're beautiful! |
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| When planting flowers in the rose garden, I came across Fox's buried treasure from a couple of Easter hunts ago. I left it on the front porch for Fox to find. |
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| Before Fox found her egg, rascally raccoons , who must have found lost Easter eggs from other hunts loaded with candy, absconded with the egg. They left it broken open on the driveway near Papa Tom's truck. The egg is safely indoors now. |
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| Portland Trail Blazers' fan Otis spent Spring Break at basketball camp. He's on the far right in the back row. His favorite Trail Blazer is Point Guard Damian Lillard, #0. |
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| Second graders made items to sell on Market Day as a way to earn money for their next field trip. Each child had his or her own table. I couldn't resist a glow-in-the dark fairy wand, birdseed ornament, lucky rock, and seashell ornament. Fox is quite a persuasive salesperson. She made suggestions and recommendations to potential customers, who included other students as well as parents and grandparents. |
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| Every year, we raise Painted Lady butterflies to release into the garden. One cocoon is empty; the other contains a butterfly ready to emerge. See the spots on its wing? |
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| Two butterflies in the habitat, on the front porch ready to release. |
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| Papa Tom encourages one of the butterflies to fly free. |
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| The butterfly alighted briefly in the grass before fluttering away. |
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| Fox with the Chuy's fish and her new stuffie, Woger. She explained that the stuffie's name is "Roger" as said by a baby. |
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| Fox and Amon stuff the pinata for her birthday celebration. |
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| Fox only took two whacks at the pinata before it broke. |
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| Anjanette and Fox |
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| Fox lights the candle on her birthday Rice Krispie treats cake. |
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| Jake, Anjanette, Fox, Amon, and Papa Tom |
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| Happy 8, Fox! |
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| Took in Irish music and bouncy house action at NXNW with Amon and Fox on St. Paddy's Day. |
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| Yup, that's a man in a green plaid kilt with a cowboy hat and cowboy boots. |
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| Congrats to the Destination Imagination Transporting Llamas for winning first place in North Carolina on March 16, and to their fabulous manager Brandy. They're now on their way to the global competition in Kansas City in May, in which kids from 19 countries will compete. |
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| Here's what Brandy said about the event: "Mya and her team have worked SO incredibly hard since the fall! I am the team manager and it has been a ton of work to get the kids where they are today! They won their challenge for the elementary level at the state tournament and now are headed to Kansas City for the global tournament in May. It's going to cost a pretty penny to get there so any help is so greatly appreciated!! Don't know what destination imagination is? The kids had to put on a play without the help of any adults, making the costumes, backdrops, props, sound effects and they had to incorporate a flying aircraft that is able to take off from one spot, drop payloads into another spot 5 different times and then land in a landing zone. These kids are 4th and 5th graders so the fact that they were able to do this blows my mind!! They also had to do an "instant challenge" where they had to work together as a team to complete a challenge that was unknown to them until walking into the instant challenge room and get scored on how they did. They are amazing and I am so proud of them and am so excited for them to get to experience competing with teams from all over the world." |
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| Our Black Jack winner turned 8 on March 15. Don't worry. The marks on his face are leftover movie make-up, thanks to Mya's creative ability. |
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| And here's the link to "Apocolypse," the film made by the Asheville Lewis kids, starring all of us. |
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| We waited for more than an hour to get into Robert Rodriguez's "Red 11" and his discussion about how he and his son were the only crew for the under $7,000 film. He made it as a tribute to "El Mariachi," a film he made 25 years ago in 2 weeks, starring family and friends, and for the $7,000 he earned as a "lab rat." We didn't get in and neither did several hundred badgies (primary line). |
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| We were so lucky that there was a second showing with Robert Rodriguez a couple of days later, and we got in! Actually, his presence was lagniappe. Usually, filmmakers only appear at the first SXSW showing. Robert was the cinematographer, and his son Racer was the sound man. His son Rebel was one of the actors in the film. After the showing, Robert told us how the film was made in his office building and how special effects were created using magnets, filming action in reverse, etc. Pretty interesting. |
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| Our tradition is to take in lunch at Guero's Taco Bar at least one day of SXSW. Love their koi pond. |
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| Following lunch, we took in live music under the oaks next to Guero's Taco Bar. |
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| We also took in some blues sets at Kenny Dorham's back yard. One of our favorite local blues guitarists, Alan Haynes, performed. With more than 1,000 bands from all over the world in town for SXSW, music was everywhere, but we couldn't help ourselves: we had to hear more of Alan! Check out his version of "Parchman Farm" by copying and pasting the following link into your browser: https://youtu.be/nxhHbGOiQx0 |
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| One of our favorite documentaries was "Well-groomed," about creating art on poodles, mostly, and other dogs. What do you think? Do the dogs like it? Is it demeaning to them, as some critics claim? |
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| The groomers use special dyes not harmful to the dogs. |
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| Who's ready for St. Paddy's Day? |
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| Between showings, we'd catch lunch at nearby restaurants. This restaurant is TLC, as in "Thomas Linton Cloninger." Had to give it a try! Their "enlightenment" sandwich, loaded with veggies, was incredible. |
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| Hmm. In contrast to the veggie-loaded "enlightenment" sandwich: the Wienermobile! |
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| One of the things we like best about SXSW, besides seeing indie films, are the Q and A sessions with the filmmakers following showings. |
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| And so SXSW begins! Papa Tom and I took turns circling the Austin Convention Center in the Zoomer the day before, to pick up our wristbands. We each had to personally pick prove via driver's licenses that we were in fact Austin residents and entitled to the townie rates vs. out-of-town badgie rates. |
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| In line for our first film, "Salvage," about a Canadian town in which the city dump is where citizens find treasures amidst the trash. Big change from other years at SXSW: tons of bikes, electric bikes, and scooters available for riding from venue to venue. |
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| After finding no parking on Thursday, when we picked up our wristbands, we decided to use the Capital Metro bus system. Very favorably impressed! Quick rides, close to our destinations in Central Austin. |
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| Your choice. Scooter, electric bike, or bring your own. |
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| The Horns visited on Texas Independence Day, while Emma was home on Spring Break. Good to see you guys! |
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| The night Mama and Daddy were to get home, we had dinner with Mimi at the nearby Chinese buffet. Do you see Mimi in the photo? Her reflection is in the door. :-) |
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| We had lunch at Taco Billy, owned by my Austin hair cutter's friend Hunter, who we got to meet |
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| Took in a flight at New Belgium, per our friend Greg's instruction |
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| Had coconut chocolate ale at North Carolina's best brewery, Burial Brewing |
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| The kids FaceTimed with Mama and Daddy every day. One day, we were still in our horror movie make-up when they called. |
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| Piper and Mylo |
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| Papa and River played ball |
