July adds humidity to the heat

Institute finished up for good last week. One would think that free time would be in high supply but it seems as though there is always one more thing to get taken care of.  The staff put on a closing ceremonies presentation Thursday afternoon that was a tremendous waste of time. Poorly planned and poorly executed.  Fortunately it was not all that long. Thursday night Leah had to work so I relaxed at home and made a homemade hanging basket.  Our bougainvillea appeared to need some more root space and Marie just happened to have an extra pot. It doesn't look very good but when I look at it I see functionality and can thus see beyond its appearance.  Later that night I noticed storm clouds and so I wandered up to the top of our local parking deck. I was awarded with some great views.  Much better in person though.

The view of the Austin skyline from our local parking garage roof.

Friday we thought it would be fun to go to the zoo.  By the time we got there it was already about 100 degrees and we figured that the animals would be asleep.  The girl at the desk confirmed our suspicions so we left with hopes of returning on a cooler day in the future,  A huge draw for me is that the zoo has a mini-train that tours its grounds.  Very cool.  Friday evening we bought a super classy box of sangria to have with dinner and a movie. It was a perfectly enjoyable evening.  

Sometime the previous week I bought a new set of tires for my road bike and so was able to go for my customary Saturday morning ride. It was great as usual and when I got home Leah was awake! After some time at the pool we went to the store so that I could procure the ingredients for pizza.  Saturday night we had a couple of friends over from TTF.  It was nice and relaxed. We listened to music and talked and ate homemade pizza all night long.  

Sunday through Tuesday were pretty boring for me.  Leah had to work everyday so I was left to my own devices. Monday morning I had to attend the hiring meeting for Del Valle ISD. That was a good step to have out of the way.  It meant that I had a lot of reading to do and a bit of research on insurance and investment type stuff.  All mostly unknown to me, but surely a smart thing to start getting educated on. 

Tuesday was Leah's 23rd birthday.  We had a little celebration.  Marie and Ryan came over Tuesday night for some birthday carrot cake. 

I couldn't even get a photo of the lit candles she extinguished them so fast.

Wednesday we drove Marie down to San Antonio for her flight back north.  That was a super efficient trip but I think Marie was forced to pay for its efficiency by being delayed at the airport for around 5 hours.  Too bad.  As far as I know she is up in Wisconsin now and will be heading to Michigan on Sunday. Hopefully she has a great time and some great weather.

We're getting ready to head out for Colorado tomorrow.  We'll be there from July 24th through July 31st.  We arrive in Denver at 7:40 am and will be picked up by Chris at the airport.  The first couple of days will be spent in Denver and then Chris is going to drive us up to the mountains for the week.  The weather was supposed to be a refreshing change for us but it looks like it might be an extreme change. Whatever it is like we will make the most of it and enjoy ourselves thoroughly. 

That's it for now.  I am sure that we will have some photos and stories to share upon our return from Colorado.

As always, we appreciate any stories and/or photos from the north country.

Love Jay and Leah.

Gettin' settled in

The 4th of July weekend finished without much ado.  I feel like we went to the pool here at our complex that Sunday the 5th for some serious relaxation.  Leah may or may not have gone into work.  Your guess is as good as mine.  I know for a fact that she worked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Long days and nights at Chuy's Fine Tex-Mex. 

On Monday I had class and then went out to Home Depot for some wood and to get some wood cut. Our bougainvillea has been growing like a weed so I built a small lattice work to hang above it and facilitate it's growth.  So far so good. The cut wood was for a shoe rack per Leah's request.

Leah did finally get together with the art director from Latinworks. They had a meeting last Tuesday and it went very well.  Now we're sitting with our fingers crossed that something comes of it.  At the very least Leah will have made an excellent contact within her field.

At some point last week Leah went shopping to Pier 1 and Target.  She got a nice looking rug for our living room and a couple of lamps.  The first lamp is freestanding and highly

functional.  The second lamp is really just a lamp shade.  It requires a cord, a fixture and some sort of device to hang it from the ceiling...  As always, everything matches beautifully and our apartment looks more comfortable than ever. Every time that Leah makes some sort of improvement to our apartment I am completely satisfied with the state that it has been brought to.  I couldn't possibly think of any way to improve upon it. And then she brings something else home that improves it. 

Thursday just came back to me.  We went to the Alamo Drafthouse for dinner and to see the movie Public Enemies. It's a new movie about the life of John Dillinger.  The movie was good. It was really long but didn't feel like it, usually a good sign. The food was quite good as well.

Friday night the Teaching Fellows had a social event at the Salt Lick BBQ.  I was starting to feel bad about my less than stellar attendance at their gatherings so Leah and I made an appearance.  We ended up having a really good time.  All of our BBQ experiences up to that point had been so-so.  The places always seemed to have something good and other things that were no good. The Salt Lick was good all-round.  Their "meat-pride" wasn't so astronomical as to prevent them from providing BBQ sauce. And their sides were good as well.

Saturday morning I woke up stupidly early and found that my trusty road bike had a flat tire. Fortunately we live in a bi-bicycling paradise and I was able to take off on my mountain bike for a couple of hours.  I had my standard uphill crash.  I was once told by someone much more skilled than I that if you don't crash occasionally you are not pushing your own limits. I will take that and make myself feel better.  There are a number of obstacles on the trails here that really do make me push my limits and I feel like I've bettered my technical skills significantly. Saturday afternoon Leah and I went to look at a house. It was north of here up by Lake Travis. The neighborhood was great and the house was cool as well.  Very small and low maintenance.  We are not serious about it at this point.  However, we do expect to

be here for a few years and at some 

point will want to stop throwing our money away in an apartment. Perhaps a house or maybe a condo.  Lot's of things to consider and plenty of time to consider them.  And there are of course other things that need to get settled before we take a step like that.

Saturday night Marie came over for homemade pizza.  Marie was dog-sitting for one of her friends and so she brought "Coco" over for the evening. Coco was an absolute glutton for attention and occupied most of our time. Both Leah and I miss our dogs back home so it was nice to have a dog around for a while. 

Marie came over again on Sunday morning for breakfast.  The three of us had breakfast tacos and a nice relaxing morning. We accomplished a whole lot of nothing Sunday afternoon.  We actually tried to watch Jerry McGuire.  We decided that it must have been the most over-rated movie of the 90's and gave up.  That evening we went grocery shopping and I really upped the day's productivity. Once home I got to work sewing an arm rest.  In the previous blahg I mentioned that I was mulling over ways of making our desk more comfortable.  Well, I made up my mind and went with felt padding covered with a heavy piece of navy fabric. It fastens to the desk edge with velcro and is exceptionally comfortable and appropriate looking if I do say so myself.  

Our patio garden is still going strong.  Our Trumpet Creeper's seed pods are growing at an impressive rate.  I've never had an up-close view of the growth of a seed pod.  Apparently sometime last week one of it's flowers got pollinated and out shot a pod from the ovule receptacle.  Very cool. We're going to try and germinate the seeds and grow some baby vines! By the way those are fire ants crawling all over the pod.  That plant produces nectar in abundance.  

That's really everything now.  We hope that you are all doing well.  From what we've heard Michigan has been having some superb weather lately. Wish we could be there to enjoy it with you.  Soon we will be heading to the cooler climes of the Rocky Mountains for some sight seeing and respite from the heat.

Good night.

Love Leah and Jay.

First full month in the books

It's gonna be tough to remember back as far as the last entry. I guess I'll just skip it and move on to Thursday. The new iMac came in the afternoon Thursday. Quite the event that was. Leah was very excited and it is indeed a beautiful machine. The desk that it is set up on needs a bit of work. I have been mulling over different ideas for edging and can't seem to make up my mind. I've narrowed it down to a traditional wooden trim strip and an unconventional piece of fabric with padding under it. The desks sole purpose is to be a computer work station:+fabric. The wooden strip would certainly be easier and probably look better:+wood. Any ideas?

Friday was a long and hot day during which we got new cell phones. I can't imagine a worse way to spend two hours. That must be the business to be in. They've got you right where it counts and they know it. My new "free" phone is definitely not better than my abused two year old "free" phone. Alas, we still have the ability to talk on the phone. Thank goodness... Also, I have a new number: 512-820-5884. The day's good news was that Leah went shopping and found some great new clothes that she is happy with.

On Saturday a friend of mine from MTU who now lives in Houston came over. Leah had to go to work so Will and I went to Barton Springs Pool and then got some dinner at the Green Mesquite BBQ. Very good place to eat and reasonably priced as well.

Sunday we tried to find good old fashioned diner food for breakfast and were disappointed. We went to a place called Kerbey Lane Cafe and it wasn't any good. Leah got pancakes that were straight out of a jiffy box and my biscuits and gravy tasted like peppered sawdust over wet cardboard. Too bad. People here just don't know greasy spoon diner food.

The week passed by without much ado. Leah worked a bunch and I finished up my "practice teaching". One significant improvement was that Leah got the AC fixed in her car. A negative for the week was that I got stung by some kind of Texan super bee while mountain biking. It hurt much worse than any bee sting that I've ever gotten. Then it turned black and blue and itched like crazy for four days.

Marie, Ryan, Leah and I all had Friday the 3rd off so we went on an adventure. We went down to Shiner, TX to go on a tour of the Shiner Brewery. Their beer is good and the tour is free and we all wanted to get out of Austin for a day, so off we went. Unfortunately when we got there, a sign was on the front of the building that said they were closed for the day. Great, two hour drive to the middle of absolutely nowhere, for this! We considered our options and decided that there really was nothing else to do in that town. On the way back we stopped in a town called Luling that is apparently the watermelon capital of somewhere. Their water tower was painted like a watermelon. No picture though. Our dinner plans were for a real Texas barbecue called Kreuz's in Lockhart, TX. It surely was a real TX BBQ. Lot's of big trucks in the lot and big people inside. Once inside you wait in a line to order your meat directly from the pit. There was an approximately ninety year old woman at the cash register working with a butcher that looked like Attila. The menu had about 8 items on it, of which we wanted two. Pork ribs and high fat beef brisket. They were out of pork ribs!! So we sat down with our brisket and a large pork chop. They don't use plates or forks so we ate with our hands off of paper. It was the real deal. They don't even use sauce. Just straight meat. The rest of Friday was spent in a meat 'coma. Leah and I watched a movie called The Constant Gardener that evening. It sounded promising and it wasn't terrible, just depressing and not great. That evening we also climbed a parking garage that is near to our apartment. Marie and I had gone up about a week earlier and enjoyed the views so Leah and I made the same trip.
Saturday I went for the usual road ride and had a great time. I've got a nice loop worked out with some good hills and not too much traffic. That afternoon Leah and I both agreed that we needed to find a place with some "normal" food. Off we went downtown in search of an Irish pub. BD Rileys was where we ended up and it was great. The interior was semi-dark, damp and smelled just right. We got potato skins and fish-n-chips. It was so very good.

Being the 4th of July we had to figure out a way to see some fireworks. There is a big show over Town Lake here. They close down one of the bridges for pedestrian traffic only and play music and everything. However, Marie, Ryan, Leah nor I wanted to go downtown in the late night heat to see the fireworks with 18 million other people. Luckily, the parking garage from which the previous photo of the downtown skyline was taken was open to the public. We climbed up there and were surprised to be joining about 200 other people for a great showing of the fireworks with the skyline as a backdrop. The showing was great. The sound was so faint that it was like we were watching them on TV.


It looks like were at the beginning of another week. This was certainly a different 4th of July weekend for us. We spent a lot of our time inside to stay cool. We're used to Michigan where the days are perfect and the nights are cool. Hopefully you all had a wonderful holiday weekend.

Love Leah and Jay.

My memories instant recall function failed me a minute ago but upon reflection I remember that a number of significant things happened in the past week.

The first important happening was the purchase of a new computer. Leah and I decided that the ratio of our computer's performance to the amount of work that we do on the computer had gotten far too low. So a "new" iMac should be here tomorrow. Apple was selling refurbished models for a good deal less money than new ones so we bought one. Leah must have access to a number of design programs that have special requirements in terms of memory and performance. This new machine will certainly take care of her and allow her to do what she does best.

The second biggie was the one year mark for Leah and I. That was very cool. We give ourselves a two day period from which we can choose the most convenient day in advance. This worked out great this time because the date fell on Saturday. Leah actually had to work on Saturday so I went for a bike ride as usual. We celebrated by dining out at a new restaurant. The choice was Italian so we went to the highest rated Italian place in town. If it was up to us their ratings would go down a few notches. It was good but different. The sauces were very spicy and it was clearly Tex-Italian. Mounds of cheese and extra meat. We had a great time regardless and followed it up with some snicker-doodle ice cream. All in all a memorable and fun night.

Sunday started pretty slowly and didn't really speed up all that much as the time passed. We went for a walk at about 11am but we succumbed to the heat after about 15 minutes. As a result Leah went to the gym and I went for a mountain bike ride. That was about the closest to heat stroke that I've been yet:) Haha. It really is hot here.

The third and arguably most important happening was Leah being contacted by an art director at a design firm. The firm's name is Latinworks. They specialize in corporate advertisements for recognizable names such as Burger King, Budweiser and Lowes amongst many. Leah got put in touch with the art director through, I think, a friend of a friend of Leah's Aunt Doris. She is lined up to schedule a meeting sometime next week to feel out for any opportunities. We are crossing our fingers and hoping for good news.

Number four is that we just booked tickets to Denver for July 24-31. I have a break for about two and a half weeks and that will be it until Christmas vacation. We decided that it would be a smart and welcome time to go for a trip. Neither Leah nor I have been to the Rockies in the summer recently enough to remember it and I haven't even met Chris' son Riley. We will be hanging out with Chris in Denver for a couple of days and then heading up to Breckenridge to stay in a condo very graciously offered by Dr. Lane.

Other than those four items of significance, nothing major has occurred. Our plants are growing nicely. The trumpet creeper is still attracting a few clever and relentless ants that have found ways around my barriers. We may be smart and somewhat clever but insects have a mindless determination that is tough to beat. It has also attracted a hummingbird that visits regularly. Make that two hummingbirds, playing as I write. Reminds me of sitting at the cottage and watching the feeder in the pine tree...

With luck we'll be checking back in about a week with more exciting news.

Love Jay and Leah

Going Green in Texas

Another week has flown by here. They're rate of speed is becoming alarming. Leah managed to contract the plague last week and so spent most of its second half in bed resting. The tables turned for a few days there and I got the chance to take care of her. I continued to go to my summer institute sessions in the afternoons. They’ve been going well. My FA (Fellow Advisor) teaches the classes and reminds me distinctly of Anne, of Uncle Jack and Anne. She looks similar, has a similar voice and a similar sense of humor. I enjoy spending time with Anne so this has been quite comforting. It is likely that other things occurred last week, but if they did, I certainly do not remember them.

Leah’s health started to look up on Friday and she was mostly better by Friday evening. What I remember about last Friday evening is that in her newfound vigor, Leah made spaghetti. It was sooo good. I was especially thankful for that meal by about 10am Saturday morning! I managed to rouse myself Saturday at about 6:30am to go for a bike ride and beat the heat. It started great and almost finished great as well. The weather was nice, about 80 degrees when I left with high humidity and low hanging clouds. I was about 45 miles into my ride and unknowingly took a wrong turn. I began to see biker after biker after biker. I swallowed my pride and said to one of them, “Where am I?” For a split second I think he was wondering if maybe I was nuts from the heat, but he told me that I was near Mansfield Dam. Mansfield Dam is the dam that holds back Lake Travis, about 10 miles north of Austin. When all was said and done, I had tacked on an extra 15 miles, 1000ft of climbing, drained my 100oz water tank and met some new cyclists. Not too bad.

Leah's time has largely been occupied with portfolio and design business the past few days. She has a BA in graphic design and can do some mightily impressive things on the computer. Lately she has been working on a personal logo and organizing her portfolio to make herself marketable. When I consider the amounts of time, energy and frustration that are involved in simply writing this journal, the things that she does absolutely blow my mind. She is fluent in a bunch of different design programs. Many things that we look at everyday we often take for granted because our world is so saturated with visual stimuli. But all of those graphics that you see on websites, brochures, TV and packaging must be created from scratch by someone. And that person will likely be Leah in the near future.

Saturday afternoon Leah and I decided to remedy the problem of a Home Depot Gift Card burning a hole in her pocket. We finally made it out to buy plants for our apartment. Neither of us had half a clue what we were doing and luckily an employee who had recently moved here from Wisconsin took pity on us. She pointed us towards some advantageous plants to have at an apartment and gave us directions on watering, trimming and potting etc. We came home with a yucca plant and a dracaena massangeana for indoors. For our patio we picked up an aloe vera plant, a bougainvillea and a vine called an Indian Summer Trumpet Creeper. They really make the place look better. And the patio smells nice as well.

Later that afternoon, I made the famous Prescott chocolate chip cookies to take to a potluck/pool party that Leah and I were planning on going to Saturday night. It ended up being quite a bit of fun. It was hosted by the roommates of one of my fellow classmates. Great variety of people and some good food to go along.

Sunday morning I wandered out onto the patio to have a look at the new plants; to my slight dismay I saw that every bud on the creeper was covered with fire ants. I hadn’t woken up fully yet but I knew for sure that I didn’t like what I had seen. Sure enough, I looked it up on the net and approximately 40 trillion southern gardeners had complained that the creeper attracts fire ants from miles around. I thought for a few minutes on my dilemma and decided to block their path of entry and then get rid of the current intruders. I used brake grease to create little barriers around all of their potential points of access. So far so good. The unopened buds secrete copious amounts of a sweet nectar that seems to be attracting every insect that has survived the myriad pesticide attacks by our complex.

We generally reserve Sundays for accomplishing tasks like laundry, shopping, and cleaning. And that is exactly what we did. We wanted to go to Lowe’s to look for a lamp so I had their lumber guy cut me some plywood to make a bookcase out of. Leah has stated adamantly that the clutter on the desk just isn’t going to cut it, so we now have some more storage.

Monday morning began with my first "practice teaching" session. The entire process has been vague in description and lax in direction. I was just told to arrive at a certain place at a certain time and figure it out from there. Perfect. My cooperating teacher is a good guy but he's not actually teaching a class this summer. He's a behavior specialist who's there to look in on kids who have behavior plans. The purpose of me being there is to practice teaching so I made my way around until I found a teacher who will let me run a few lessons so that I can be observed and get credit. Plus my assigned teacher is explaining loads of stuff to me that I will need to know this fall. All in all it's going well. With a little self-advocacy the situation will turn out for the best.
I am fairly sure of who my co-teacher will be next year. All accounts thus far have been glowing so I will hope for the best. She has experience teaching the course so my job will be to provide appropriate modifications to the lesson plans to accommodate the special education students in the class. I will be sharing the teaching responsibility as well as doing some case management outside of class.

I can't believe that it's Wednesday night already. That's all for now.

As always Leah and I hope that all is well in Michigan. And we of course appreciate any and all pictures of the Michigan summer that we are missing.

Love Jay and Leah

The temperature is STILL rising

There goes another week in Texas. They're moving by quickly. We've been here almost a month now. We are staying busy. I have been exploring the hill country by bike when I get the chance. I made the mistake of going for a ride about a week ago in the afternoon. Human beings just aren't made to exercise in this heat. Siesta's were created for a very good reason. I had enough water with me so I was fine and the ride was great, but sort of rough. I went west of here to a small town named Fitzhugh. The road is hilly with vistas across the hill country. The "country" here might not fit the stereotyped definition of country, that being of forgotten lands inhabited by low income peoples. In Michigan the boondocks start not too far out of town. Here you can go for miles and miles and not find the boonies. The cars that pass you on the road become more expensive and the homes turn into sprawling estate ranches with mansions set in their middles.

Leah finally finished her training at Chuys and has started waitressing without the added load of quizzes and criticism with no tips. She has been working most days (not to mention taking care of me) and the experience is improving. As for my work future, I do have some more official dates. I start on August 4 with a week of new teacher training followed by two weeks of planning. School starts on Aug. 24.

Chuy's did not require Leah's service on Thursday so we had some fun in the sun. If you walk about a mile towards town on the greenbelt you come to Town Lake where the Colorado River is dammed. Along the inlet of Barton Creek there is a canoe rental place that we visited. We spent about an hour canoeing out into the lake and seeing the sights. The water provided a great view of the city and gave us another perspective. Living in the water near the inlet are hundreds of turtles. We couldn't believe how many turtles there were floating and eating about us. We counted ten on one log practically stacked on top of one another. The trip went without difficulty until we were almost back to the rental place. We were close to the bank and heard a kid yell cuh-caw. We couldn't see him until he had landed in the water next to us giving us a good soaking. He had apparently been perched in a tree waiting. We weren't happy about it but it was a very well executed prank nonetheless.

Leah's aunt Doris arrived into the airport later Thursday. We picked her up and all went out to dinner at Baby Acapulcos. The food, atmoshpere and company were all wonderful. Doris is a blast and kept us thoroughly entertained. She was traveling to Texas primarily to visit her friend "Doc", but we got her for some of the time. We showed her the Greenbelt Friday morning and then she was off to the south to meet her friend.

Back to the topic of exercise, if you want to get some serious time in you must go out in the morning. I went for a group road ride early Saturday morning west of town. It started at 8am and we rode around the country for about 50 miles. I was expecting to meet a bunch of hardcore athletes that would kick my butt all over the road but was happy to find quite the opposite. They were very relaxed and just out for a nice morning cruise. Apparently the "kick your butt" rides start later from a different location.

Saturday afternoon I did something that I have never done before. In Michigan, every moment of every sunny day must be relished and utilized to the greatest extent possible. Last Saturday, a beautiful sunny day, I closed the blinds, turned the AC down and watched a movie. It was heavenly. Leah came home later hot and tired from work and we watched another movie. Things are different down here. It takes some getting used to.

Sunday we woke up with a fire under our butts and got serious. Leah went to the gym and I went mountain biking. She had a great workout and I had a great ride. I met the president of the Austin Ridge Riders Association. I think that will be a good contact to have as they know all the trails and organize rides and events. We spent the afternoon by the pool and doing house cleaning type stuff.

Sunday night Doris and Doc came back up to Austin and we all had dinner at a barbecue place called the County Line. The food wasn't all that great but the restaurant was perched atop a hill with a great view, and the company was excellent as well.

We haven't seen too much out of Marie and Ryan lately. Marie and I went up north last Friday to pick up a desk and she came over yesterday to hang out and go swimming. They had an apartment warming party last Saturday that we heard went very well but we weren't able to attend.

Summer Institute for the Fellows started yesterday with opening ceremonies. I have afternoon classes this week and practice teaching starts next week. That will take place in the mornings.

Our apartment hasn't changed much of late. We have the necessities all taken care of plus some luxuries so I think we are mostly content.

That'll do it for this one. We hope you are all well and as always, we appreciate updates on what's new and how things are going.

Love Jay and Leah.

I'll leave you with this,

Back to the heat, Leah and I saw a hilarious example of it's effects on Sunday. In the oak tree outside of our window were two squirrels completely zonked out. It looked as if they were taking a siesta. Don't worry, they were not dead.