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May 31, 2005
Peaches are Ready!
You'll recall from an earlier post, our backyard peach trees in bloom.
The crop is ready... and they are delicious!
Posted by Jim at 6:39 PM | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack
May 27, 2005
Kicking off Memorial Day weekend at Hamilton's Pool
While Deb and Meg drove to Dallas for the Little Mo Regionals, I took the afternoon off to drop Kate and Claire off over at the Austin Tennis Academy, while Scott and I decided to go to Hamilton's Pool, which is fairly close by.
For those of you who've not yet been to Hamilton's Pool, it seems to be out in the middle of nowhere, in the rolling Hill Country terrain. A satellite photo shows basically a sink hole which developed long ago, and must have surprised the folks who first encountered it.
From the parking area, it's a quarter mile hike down to the pool. As we started down the trail, we noticed a couple in front of us, stopped dead in their tracks. There was a snake crossing the path, seemingly in no hurry to move. After some more folks walked up, the snake took his hint and darted into the brush, unfortunately before I could dig the camera out of the bag. We could use St. Patrick here in Texas!
After that eventful start, we made our way down to the beach area of the pool. Here's Scott:
The water was refreshingly cold, much like Barton Springs. After getting way cooled down, we went on a hike around the inside. Here's a view of the waterfall from the inside area:
And here's looking back at the beach area (amazing really considering you're in the middle of scraggly hill country land):
And finally on to the waterfall. There's nothing quite like taking a shower with the shower head five stories above you!
If that's not enough, the prickly pear cactus are in full bloom so we finish this with an artistic florish:
Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone!
PS- For those of you with super high tech photo printers, you click on any of the images to get high resolution pictures for printing.
Posted by Jim at 5:03 PM | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack
May 22, 2005
Boom in the night
Around 2am Saturday morning, Deb and I were "treated" to quite a light show. In fact, it woke us up from a dead sleep.
One of the lightning arresters on the utility pole along our back fence decided to explode in a very impressive flash, followed by sparks falling to the ground.
You know it's impressive when you're sound asleep and see the flash through your eyelids, wake, and see a few sparks falling to ground, all when I can't see a thing because I didn't have my contacts in.
This was enough to get Deb out of bed. I on the other hand rolled over and went back to sleep. I thought it had all been a dream until I went out the next day and saw the aftermath.
Circled is the blown lightning arrester and the jumper wire hanging in the air.
Here's a closeup of one of the parts that landed in our yard.
If you need another reason not to be out during an electrical storm, this could be it!
Update: When I reported this to Austin Energy, they claimed they had already come out and fixed it. I invited them to view the family blog site to show the work had not been done. Now it has:
Lesson: Blogs can even motivate bureaucracies!
Posted by Jim at 2:59 PM | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack
Welcome to the dog days
It's approaching 100 degrees today. That leaves few options other than Barton Springs or the Great Hills pool. Since we're getting a late start, the pool it is.
Though too brief, thankfully Spring was so nice.
Posted by Jim at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack
May 16, 2005
2005 Spring Soccer Season Recap
This past weekend, Scott and Meg concluded their spring soccer seasons, with both games ending in dramatic fashion.
Scott's team, the Beetles, had a very successful season, winning many more games than not. This is unusual since the our kids play only the spring season which is the off season for soccer. As such they are put on teams put together at the last minute. They face teams who play both spring and fall and learn to play together.
The Beetles were mainly kids from Scott's Laurel Mountain elementary school. They were all pretty good sized kids for their age. This helped them move the pile around the ball in the right direction. Scott is especially effective and having the pile move in the direction he wants it to move!
In their final game, the other team got out to a quick 2-0 lead. The other team had some ringer with amazing skills for a 7 year old! Scott's team answered with a goal, as they moved the pile of kids towards the other goal and punched one in. The other team responded with a goal and it stood at 3-1 at half time.
After half the sugar kicked in and the Beetles scored two quick goals on some amazing shots by our ringer, Lars. Earlier in the season he had 9 goals in a Saturday and Sunday game pair. Speed is quite an asset at this age!
The other team scored to make it 4-3, and in the final few minutes, one of our guys lofted a kick about 20 feet straight up into the air. The ball bounced once in front of the defender, right over his head, and into the net, for a dramatic, last second 4-4 tie.
Meg's team, the Storm, was more typical of the teams the kids get on. It was assembled last minute, and they've had their struggles throughout the year, not winning a single game, but mustering a single tie.
Most of the kids were from the Cedar Park area. She's been fortunate to meet kids all over Northwest Austin over the years on the different teams she's been a part of.
In their final game, they jumped out to a quick lead. Scoring goals has been rare, a lead even rarer. The girls played by far their best game, flying to the ball, and not backing down an inch. After half time they were leading 1-0. Meg played half back most of the game, and continally advanced the ball up field, keeping the other other team on their own side.
In the second half, the defensive struggle continued, until the waning moments of the game, when the ref inserted herself with a very curious call, a direct free kick inside the penalty box for the other team. From my understanding, unless the rules have changed, this should have been a penalty kick... thankfully it was not.
Meg's entire team made a wall, and one of her former teamates from a few season's back blasted a kick at the goal. The ball ricocheted off the cross bar, hit one of the girls on Meg's team, and nearly rolled back into the goal. Thankfully it did not, and the win was secured!
Meg's team managed to conclude a tough season with a hard fought victory.
Two dramatic games, back to back!
Posted by Jim at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack
May 8, 2005
Mother's Day at Kerbey Lane Cafe
Claire, Kate, Meg, Scott, and I wanted to spoil Deb for Mother's Day, so we took her over to the Kerbey Lane Cafe by our house.
The wait was daunting as it usually is, but we all hung in there knowing the sheer quantity and quality of food would make up for it.
Kerbey Lane did not disappoint once the meal came! And I think some of my daughters can hang with their Uncles when it comes to eating a full stack of pancakes.
From all the kids, Happy Mother's Day Deb!
Posted by Jim at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack
May 1, 2005
It's May, the Pool is Open for business
The Great Hills Pool opened in May for weekends.
After our "fine" legal and liability insurance community had the diving boards removed in the name of removing every last risk in our lives, it was great to see a pool slide put in it's place this year.
Here's Scott breaking it in.
Posted by Jim at 8:43 AM | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack