Stalked by ducks.

We enjoyed a fun raftup last night with Lori, Dave, Kurt & Kevin.  The wind was slack and light overnight, and we ended up getting our anchor lines twisted.  We knew that was the case, though, so we were prepared for it when we went to pull up our anchors today.  We enlisted the kayak and detached the anchor rode from Nirvana entirely while Camelot pulled theirs up, untwisting them as we went along.   Back on-board Nirvana, we reattached our rode and pulled our anchor up and got underway.  Next time, we’ll put out a stern line.  🙂

As we headed back to the marina, the two ducks that hang out in the cove were behaving very strangely.   They have been in the cove everytime we have gone out there this year, and they hang out by our boat.   We’ve named them George and Gracie.  This time, though, as we were motoring along, they followed us well out of the cove, swimming hard to try to keep up.

IMG_3606 They would fall behind and then take flight and land next to us near mid-ships.   Then drift back to where we were pulling the kayak, and tried to keep up again.

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They repeated this over and over.   After watching them do this five or six times, we slowed down so we could see what they would do when they caught up with us.   And they proceeded to paddle right up to the transom.

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And Gracie jumped aboard as we were moving along.   George seemed a bit more reserved.

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Eventually they got tired of playing with us and moved along.

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…..funny birds.

 

 

Fly ’em if you got ’em.

Anchoring out tonight with Lori and Dave on Camelot, and Kurt and Kevin on Dancer.

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A new find.

Whoa! I just discovered that my iphone camera app will take panoramas. Can you guess where I am for this momentous occasion?

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St. Paddy’s Day selfie.

🙂
May your week be a short one.
May your weekend come soon.
May your friends and your loved ones help you carry the tune!

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Polar vortex strikes again.

While we were driving home last night from Louisiana we watched the temperature drop from the 70s to the 40s in a matter of minutes. By the time we got home it was freezing in our neighborhood. Spring is only 17 days away, but it’s a tad chilly here!

Tonight I joined Doray, Laura, Irene and Ann for dinner to celebrate Lori’s birthday. Back home in time to wait for the rain and sleet to come in from the west. I hope it lingers over the lake.

An interesting chandelier from Justine’s tonight:

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We’re having a ball.

We had a gruelling Saturday: breakfast at Poupart’s bakery, driving around seeing the sights and (for me) reminiscing; poboys for lunch at Old Tyme Grocery – the world’s best poboys by the way; another parade (and more beads) this afternoon; then off to get showered/shampooed/shined so that we can get dressed up to attend the Krewe of Triton Mardi Gras Ball!

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Faces in open places.

The weather this winter has been a roller coaster of sunny-and-70s then sleet-and-20s-and-30s. About three or four turns so far and one more on the way tomorrow. It was a beautiful day today, so I threw open the windows and took a walk through the greenbelt.
Along the way I came across this rock and saw a face in it (sort of). If i squint a bit i think i can make out Jay Leno…

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Getting ready for Mercury.

According to Sky and Telescope, Mercury is at its highest tonight, and reportedly the best view of it, all year. So, after sunset, I toodled over to my favorite nearby west-facing vantage point and caught this shot of it to the top left of the crescent moon.

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For those of you that are inclined to look towards the stars for influence on our day-to-day lives, be warned that Mercury will enter retrograde from Feb 6 to Feb 28. Get ready for some weird happenings and funky vibes. More background here. And you may want to bookmark this link for future reference.

And, let me wish everyone a happy Chinese new year. 2014 is supposed to be the year of the horse. But let me just add….. GO HAWKS!!!!!

Greetings.

I took the day off, and Monte and I made a trip to South Austin.   You may be familiar with the “Greetings from Austin” mural.   It was first painted in 1998.   It only took me 15 years, but I finally got down there in August to see it myself.  When I did, i saw how deteriorated the mural had become.   Here is a link to the photo I took back in August.  Since then the building owners raised money to restore the wall behind the mural and repaint it.   They started the renovation about a month ago and just finished it.   Below is a photo of the brand-spanking-new version that I took today.

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Reverse.

Temperatures outside have dipped into the forties. The cold weather is now here. You know what that means. Switch from AC to Heat in the house. And [drumroll] time to reverse the ceiling fans!

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But, which way, you ask? Conventional (aka google) wisdom says the blades turning Clockwise (when viewed from the floor) is what you want when you’ve got the heat on. Counter-clockwise when the AC is on.

Also, you should celebrate with a seasonally appropriate beverage. 🙂

Happy Halloween!

Back home (yay!).   Before dinner, we carved our pumpkin, and hung inviting lights out front.  But it’s already 10pm and we’re woefully low on trick-or-treaters.   C’mon, people!!!

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Going batty.

Wow, this week has been crazy.   Today I’ve been on back to back calls since 6AM without a break until 2:30 PM.  And I have a couple more hours of meetings to go before the day is over — certainly lots more work to do after the calls.   But after my call ended at 2:30 I just had to get up and walk around.

I started to walk down the hall to the kitchen when a blob on the window by the front door caught my eye.   What the heck is that?

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I better take a closer look…

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OMG that is a bat!   In case you were not aware, Austin is home to the largest urban bat colony in the US… about 1.5 million mexican free-tailed bats make the underside of the Congress Bridge downtown their home from about March to October.  Being nocturnal, they come out from under the bridge in droves after sunset everynight to forage for insects.  I’ve seen the exodus many times and consider them friend not foe.   This little guy didn’t make it back to the bridge, apparently.   I was perfectly fine to let him hang out on the window until nightfall, but I couldn’t resist the urge to go outside and get a better picture.  For you guys, of course.

So, i went outside and approached slowly…

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Then I had to lean in a little closer to get a better shot… this one is kind of blurry…his head is pointing down, and he’s hanging on to the leaded window piece with his little feet…IMG_2030

and just then, he woke up and flew right past me.  He scared the begeesus out of me and I was as startled as he was.   I wish I had been able to get a shot of him in flight.     Oh well.   I hope he makes it back to the bridge tonight.   Sorry I woke him up, but  I didn’t get a good night’s sleep either.

I think that, eventually, my heart rate will return to normal.  🙂   For now, it’s back to work for me!

Not the hands of a girlie girl.

We’re at the lake for the night. We’ll have to wait and see who the wind will blow in tonight.
More owies for the collection. Oh well.
Looking forward to a nice night in our favorite cove.

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A fun but not-on-the-lake Sunday.

As much as we love spending our weekends on the lake, it’s nice to have a change of scenery every once in a while. I mean, we live in an awesome place; we have to get out and about. On the first Sunday of every month, the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum offers free admission to all their exhibits. So, we made plans to go today to see their current special exhibit on Texas Furniture. Here are a few scenes from our day…

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The iconic, iron lonestar out in front of the museum…it was a beautiful day…

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I snuck a pic from inside… shhh… a tad blurry, but a grand 4 poster bed…
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Lunch at Freddie’s…

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And, I finally got a picture of the Austin mural on South 1st street… it’s probably about time for some TLC – it’s showing a little wear and tear…

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And we wrapped up the day at the Zilker Hillside Theater.  Their 55th annual summer musical this year is Little Shop of Horrors.  It was a great show…

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G’nite all!