New Beginnings

Upon our return to Austin, we hit the ground running. Mark started his job on Dec 1st. Lindsay started looking for housing (apartments or a house) and researching doctors and midwives in Austin because, well, we're expecting a boy in April!

We have been blessed enormously in the past few weeks. Last night we celebrated our own family Christmas with a night out at our favorite restaurant: Z-Tejas.

We anticipate more big updates in the New Year, so will post upon returning from travels to visit family in Dallas and Virginia. Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year!

Back in Black

Nov 22, 2010

We're headed back to Austin!

After several long weeks of job searching, I've found the job for me.  I'll be working with a small company in downtown Austin.  My group is doing strategy consulting for the automotive industry.  The position is data intensive, and plays to my technical strengths and career direction very well.  At this point, it seems to be the most perfect fit I could have hoped for.

My first day is Dec 1, and I can't wait to get started!

New Addition

October 15, 2010

Lindsay's sister had a precious little girl by C-section on Friday, October 15th.

We were thrilled to be in town during this momentous event and Lindsay looks forward to helping take care of her new niece as much as possible while we are here.

This new addition is named after our Granny, Cecelia, who has Alzheimer's Disease. Granny would be deeply touched to know of the name selection.

Cecelia's "big" brother, Ashton (3), is quite sweet with his little sister. He kisses her head often and likes to play with her tiny fingers and toes.

Where Three Mountain Ranges Come Together

October 13, 2010

Though Asheville boasts being the largest city (pop. ~77,000) in Western North Carolina, it is more famous for its breath-taking scenery than it is for its "largest" categorization. With the Appalachian, Great Smokey, and Blue Ridge mountain ranges gathering here, its no wonder Asheville was named one of the "Best Outside Towns'' by Outside Magazine in 2006.

Traveling to Asheville had been on our list of cities to visit since learning that Lindsay's Aunt Joyce and Uncle Bill moved there five years ago.

Their hospitality did not cease to amaze us. We had a full itinerary, which included hiking part of the Appalachian Trail (2175-mile long trail from Maine to Georgia) with their hiking group,

touring Asheville, and chatting with the wild turkeys that "grace" their mountain neighborhood (and their front yard at times!).

In addition, we enjoyed travel-friendly conversation, ate deliciously-prepared meals by Joyce who has trained with chefs across the country and we savored homemade truffles that greeted us on our pillows. It felt like a true retreat and we were sad to start the 8-hour trek back to Williamsburg.

While in Asheville, we did visit the largest privately-owned home in the United States: the Biltmore Estate. It is 135,000 square feet with 250 rooms. (I wouldn't want to sign up to clean a house like that!)

Each of William Henry Vanderbilt's eight children inherited money from their father. The youngest child, George Washington Vanderbilt, chose to build a summer estate in the beautiful mountains of Asheville, NC where he had visited with his mother for years. George considered the Vanderbilt Estate his "little mountain escape." To read more on the history, please see theBiltmore Estate website or the Wiki link.

North Carolina's Largest City

October 10, 2010

Charlotte, NC (pop. 750,000) is North Carolina's largest city and is located in southern North Carolina, about 30 miles north of South Carolina. (Boy is that a mouthful!)

Though Charlotte boasts loads of green space and entertainment options, the biggest attraction for us is Lindsay's brother and wife: Matthew and Denise, and their dog: Jackson.

Our weekend with Matthew and Denise was well-spent walking, cooking, playing cards, and routing for Virginia Tech's football team. A little Guitar Hero was thrown in for kicks as well. We see Matthew and Denise about once/year, so this extra visit was a special treat!

Big Tex / Big Family

Oct 3, 2010

We were in Dallas to celebrate birthdays last week.  My brother and mom both celebrated one.  We flew in for Daniel's surprise party.  He was actually surprised!  We got to spend lots of good time with family cooking meals and catching up.

We went to the State Fair of Texas as part of my mom's birthday.  It was Lindsay's first time at any state fair.  She had her share of fried food, car exhibits, and Ferris Wheel riding, so it was a success.  The view from the Star of Texas Ferris Wheel looking over Downtown Dallas is below.

The Sounds of Silence

Sept 19, 2010

We spent time with Duke and Jan out west of Williamsburg.  We met all the neighbors at the small church they attend, before sitting down to a healthy lunch.  

After lunch, Duke took Lindsay, Jeb the brittany spaniel, and me out for a walk in the woods.  When in woods in Virginia, two moods strike me: 1. I listen to how silent the trees are.  It's positively peaceful.  2. I imagine Revolutionary War and Civil War soldiers marching over the slow rolling hills through the trees.  I imagine what it would have been like to be in their shoes.

I picked cotton!  My grandmother had been asking if we planned on adding picking cotton to our list of adventures.  She remembers countless hours of picking on her family farm growing up.  I thought it was a long-shot, but we found some cotton to harvest.  Picking one tuft in slacks is different than harvesting all week, but it counts!

Richmond is Beautiful

Sep 14, 2010

We spent time in Richmond the last two days, exploring that town as a possible place to settle.  It's close to Lindsay's side of the family, which is important to us.

Aunt Janet put us up for the night, and showed us how lively and peaceful the town is.  Colonial-style houses abound, and I hear there are even some Class 4 rapids nearby for kyaking!

Hoos there in Charlottesville?

Sep 8, 2010

Lindsay's always wanted me to see Charlottesville, VA, so we visited there for a few days. I got to see her college town, and spent a lot of time admiring the work of Thomas Jefferson from several angles. His design of the University of Virginia lawn still stands today, and he's very highly regarded by the student population as well. I liked Monticello even more than UVA's campus. Jefferson boasted it was a place for the experimentation of all things, which mainly meant agricultural, mechanical things at that time. One of his relatives spoke of Jefferson going to many ends to create comfort, which I don't fault him for.  The man wrote 19,000 letters during his life time, in addition to the wealth of other things he created. That's an average of almost one letter written a day for seventy years. I'll say a little comfort is called for.

We also hiked in the Blue Ridge Mountains a little.  We met up with James from Ireland, who's 65 and has had a dream to travel across the U.S. by train over the next two weeks. He left his wife at home, who's more into playing bridge at home then traveling. He figures he might as well make a go of living out his dream while he has the time now!, Spending time with him felt just like a part of “The World's Fastest Indian”, one of my favorite movies. Jasper, a young talented Dutchman, joined us as well for a short hike in the Blue Ridge Mountains. They were beautiful. He's traveling down the eastern U.S. In his fast car, and definitely made the conversations more interesting.

Appendix 1:

Thomas Jefferson's Iphone.  Jefferson used these ivory slips to record notes during the day (including detailed daily weather records daily for decades) then he had a process to back the notes up in a more permanent paper notebook before erasing the slip and starting over. 

Appendix 2:  Jefferson's recipe for Vanilla Ice Cream.  Also, the typewritten version of the recipe.    It sounds from the type that the ice cream came out a little hard when it was finished: "to withdraw it, immerse the mould in warm water, turning it well till it will come out & turn it into a plate."

Appendix 3:
Jefferson was a big fan of Sir Francis Bacon's organization of human knowledge.  Jefferson's library collections in both the Library of Congress display in D.C. and at Monticello in Charlottesville are organized in this fashion.  It's an interesting way to organize things.  It certainly gives it street credibility that one of the country's most well read men found it useful.  I may try it with my own books once they're back on a proper shelf:

An Asia update:

We'd planned the third third of our year to be spent in China, possibly India, and perhaps the Philippines. I'd wanted to see China before its influence grew much further.  Now, there are two major developments of note: a birth of a baby on Lindsay's side of the family that we'd like to attend, and my brother David's wedding that we're both in. David's marrying a rock-star in Amy, by the way...

We're postponing that last part of our trip now to attend to the business of rejoining regular life.

I'm starting a job search again. If you know of any good work for a dedicated worker doing programmer tech lead work in any number of technologies, especially involving data analysis, let me know and I'll send you a resume!

Home again, home again, jiggity, jig.

Aug 30, 2010

We made it to Lindsay's parents house in Williamsburg for Labor Day. Everyone was there. Brad, Amy and Ashton are staying there for a time while their new house is fixed up, so there were seven of us at most meals. Matt and Denise came in for the holiday weekend as well, and we made a big time of it.. Home cooked meals were popular, as were naps.  We slept in the same bed for nine days in a row – the first time we'd done that since June, and in June it was without air conditioning in Texas.  We'd looked forward to this many a time on the long treks east across the nation.  We were finally at our semi-final destination.

If George could see this place now...

Aug 26, 2010

Lindsay and I picked up the pace again in Washington D.C. We were welcomed by the smell of fresh bread inside the empty house of our friend Molly's house. She came expectantly home from work, and whipped up a quick meal including fresh bread and a plum tart with rosemary crust! She pulled out all the stops for dinner, and we had a great meal.

We spent time at the Smithsonian in the Museum of American History. We watched a woman give a demonstration on how to stage a peaceful protest successfully. I read a lot about efforts to create an automated driving machine. Lindsay and I looked at Julia Child's kitchen, and admired the lightheartedness that burst from her presentation style.

We spent time with Joey and Grace at their new home. They took us out to see Annapolis and have some of the world's best crab cakes at a restaurant there. 

We checked out a private home with elevator, just for fun.

Leslie let us go to church with her,then she took us to a tiny Latin American restaurant attached to the front of a motel. It was small, tasty, and quite friendly. We loved it.

Josh and Becca had us over, among a host of other activities they had going on, and we talked about new marriages, kids, and homes over thai food. It was one of our most fun conversations all year, and we hope to 

do it again.

Appendix A:

We went by the rally titled "Restoring Honor" on Saturday as well.  I listened to Glenn Beck speak briefly, while 10's of thousands of middle-class Americans from a wide range of states listened on. It was my first time to see a huge gathering on the National Mall – pictures below.

Appendix B:

Annapolis Ice Cream. Perhaps my favorite ice cream store in the entire world. It's a small, clean, creative, family run place in the middle of town. They whip up 55 flavors that are inventive, interesting, and very well made. If I ever open an ice cream store, it will be like this one...

Miss the beach? Try the Jersey Shores.

Aug 25, 2010

Lindsay and I spent some relaxing time with our friends Brian and Piper in New Jersey. This was the second of my shaping experiences around Jersey.

The first was when I visited a beautiful section of a state park on the border of Jersey and Pennselvania. It was one of the most peaceful spots I think I've been in the world. I spent 2 hours hiking along a small trout stream along a soft, quiet ridge of the mountain.

This second experience was totally different. Brian was excited about taking us to the beach. We walked out on the peaceful beach, watching surfers try their hand at the waves along the jetty, while the sun set behind us. The water was not cold, and not warm, but just about right for a quick swim. I was impressed.  Those guys showed us their new place and shared a good meal with us, while we got to spend some time with their kids, who are engaging, well mannered, and growing quickly. They're proud parents, and we can see why!

Brooklyn

Aug 24, 2010

After New Paltz, we drove into Brooklyn to visit our friends Chris and Lee.  Those guys have a busy, creative life there in the New York area.  We spent some time at the Met, and saw the bamboo exhibit on the roof there.  There was also some interesting art from India.

Lindsay and I spent good time in the kitchen with Chris and Lee.  Lobster (yes, a homemade lobster dinner) and homemade pizza were a hit, as was the craft beer that Chris normally has on tap.  This time they had a seltzer water (rosemary seltzer if I remember right) and a lavender beer that I really liked.  We were in such a cooking mood, that once those guys took off for work, and we made some great French toast from a French baguette that was in the kitchen.  The New York stereotype is one of eating out, so it's fantastic to spend time with them at home so much -- we loved it. 

New Paltz and Mohonk

Aug 21, 2010

We spent some great time with family in New Paltz.  Faire, my mother in-law-in-law, welcomed us with a very comfortable room and fine meals.  We were treated to a lively, rainy day at Mohonk, too.  Faire worked there throughout the 1980's, where among other things, she planned murder mysteries that were offered popular Neiman Marcus fantasy gifts.  She has fond memories of the retreat, and we were interested to see what it was like!

A Four Course Breakfast

Aug 20, 2010
We were headed east when we stopped in North East, PA at a nice B&B we found called Grape Arbor.  I thought the room looked nice, and was affordable, so we decided to stop there.  When we went down to breakfast in the morning, the innkeeper let us know that they were serving a four course breakfast.  I'd missed that on the website, and it was a welcome surprise.  This crispy egg and ham dish was my favorite.  We'd definitely recommend the bed and breakfast to anyone else!

Not windy, but we learned a lot!

Aug 17, 2010

About three hours up the road from Indianapolis (and in the Central Standard Time Zone) is Chicago.

We stayed just south of the University of Chicago campus, spent two whole days at the Museum of Science and Industry. A good friend of ours was in town for business, so we met Amy for dinner our first night in town. Amy introduced us to Chicago's famous "Bean"...and to double-stuffed pizza. Yum!

The Museum of Science and Industry was something we enjoyed for hours. We'd gotten a room that was close enough to walk from, to get a good walk in the morning. Once inside, there was a live tornado there, a captured German U-Boat, a demonstration of how farmers use GPS to raise crop yields, and a display of how the understanding of the up an atom is evolving over time.  There was a picture of the adventurous museum moving the U-Boat in from the beach of Lake Michigan on the wall near the bathrooms.  You can see the train tracks they built across a busy road to move it inside one night!  On the way home from the museums at night, we got to eat at places like http://www.zhmarketcafe.com/ or http://www.snailthai.com/.  

Mark spent some time at the Robie House. It was strange how iconic the house itself is. It's credited with being the "House of the Century" in the United States, the best example of "Prarie Style", and the leading edge of the "open floor plan". It was only inhabited by an actual nuclear family for 16 years of its 100 year history, though.  The original owners only lived there two years -- less time than many people live in an apartment.  Despite the fact that it didn't have a family in it for much of its history, it is beautiful and interesting.

Indie

We spent last weekend visiting Austin friends, Daniel and Amy near Indianapolis, IN.  Daniel just finished his Ph. D., and so they've moved up there for his new job.  Those guys are expecting a healthy new child in a few weeks, so we got to see Amy getting excited to stop being pushed and kicked from the inside :).

We had a great time grilling out with those guys, playing cards, and going to church with them.  Their town of Zionsville has a lively downtown, and certainly seemed to be a fine place to live!

Badlands

Aug 12, 2010

And that's what they are, more or less: bad lands.

Although, Lindsay did like the hike in the Badlands better than most hikes Mark and Lindsay have done so far. The hike was directly on the earth formations.

The combination of a windy, stormy night of camping,

hot weather during the day, and few hike options, we decided to move on from the Badlands after an hour of hiking in the morning.