Tag: University of Texas

Unique perspective.

Over the holidays I spoke with a couple of friends who volunteer as ushers for the Texas Performing Arts organization, which hosts events all year at the Bass Concert Hall on the UT campus, and several other local theaters.

I was interested. I do have “theater” experience after all … I worked on the tech crew for the event coliseum at the university I attended back in the day – setting up, tearing down, and working spotlights for concerts, and helping Monte with productions for the showbiz club where we worked. Ok, so theater may not actually be in my blood, but I’ve at least stubbed my toe on it a few times. 🙂

I had an interview this week, attended a training session for volunteer ushers tonight, and decided to join for the remainder of this season – through August – to see how I like it. And to see how it fits in with all the other things I enjoy doing.

A bonus: I got to see some cool views of an empty Bass Concert Hall tonight.

An empty house, viewed from the second balcony.
And a view from the stage. How awesome is that?!

A few scenes from July.

I need to get back in the groove and post more frequently. Here’s a quick recap of July.

Pat, Nga, and Nicky visited us for a week. We split our time between being tourists and lake bums. We walked around the University of Texas campus one afternoon.

We’ve spent much time on the boat, enjoying the lake with friends. We rafted up overnight with Kurt & Kevin, and Brett one weekend. It’s nice to be on the hook with a breeze blowing through the boat.

Doray dropped of some eggs from her chicken coop. I love the varied colors.

When Pat and Nga were visiting, I bought a fiddle-leaf fig plant. I asked Nga to pick it out, and she selected a good one. It’s already putting out new leaves.

On to August!

Congratulations UT Class of 2020!

I ventured downtown over the weekend to snap a picture of the University of Texas at Austin’s Tower bathed in burnt-orange light, to honor the graduating Class of 2020.  My friend’s daughter graduated this year and I took this shot for her.

Congratulations to the Longhorn graduates!

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Tower Girl 2020.

I’m in my 3rd year of remotely stalking Tower Girl, the Peregrine Falcon that lives atop the University of Texas at Austin Tower.  The University has a live-streamed webcam pointed at her nest box on the northwest corner of the clocktower.  And they recently upgraded it, so it now also has audio.  Be careful with that audio volume, though.  The UT clock tower chimes every 15 minutes and it is LOUD.   This is a snap from about 5 minutes ago.  She has reportedly had a male hanging around lately, too.  February/March is the time she has been laying eggs, so I’ll be tuning in to see how it goes this year.

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As long as I’ve been watching, none of the eggs she lays each year have hatched.  I hold out hope that this is the year for baby falcons!

About town.

Noreen and I did some shopping yesterday, then headed to the University of Texas campus.  We went up in the UT Tower on a tour.  Monte and I have done this once before but it was a dark and rainy day, so I was looking forward to getting a better view.

As a part of the tour, you can go outside and walk around all 4 sides of the top of the tower.

My town, looking south from the UT Tower:

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The UT Tower, viewed from the Turtle Pond just north of the Tower:OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The UT Tower with the UT Tower Memorial in the foreground, a remembrance of the victims of the shooting that happened over 50 years ago:OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

After the tour, we grabbed lunch on the drag, and then mosied over to Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon to experience chicken shit bingo.   We didn’t win 🙂  But it was fun to cross that off my bucket list.

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Back home, we mournfully watched the Seahawks lose to the Rams.   Keeto is very broken up about it.

Septemberfest.

Monte and I rang in our anniversary with a trip through the Texas Hill Country.   We had our own mini-Oktoberfest exploring Altstadt Brewery and spent the weekend in Fredericksburg.

We enjoyed the wine and brews of the region and some local good-eats.  We also did our share of antiquing and mantiquing and each brought home a little sumpin-sumpin.

The Longhorns have an off-week, but we caught them chilling in the shade near the Pedernales River:

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We did a number of laps down Main Street in Fredericksburg.  Next week is Oktoberfest in F-burg, so GET DOWN THERE! IMG_9329

You gotta love the Texas wine trail… grape vines and live oaks.IMG_9333

And zinnias as far as you can see…IMG_9336

Happy Anny to us!

On campus.

I’m always looking for opportunities to visit our local museums. I heard about a new exhibit at the Harry Ransom Center on design and the Arts & Craft movement. So we took a trip to the University of Texas campus to see it today.

It’s a small museum but I enjoyed browsing the show.

We walked around campus a bit and grabbed lunch afterward.

Towering.

I booked a couple of tickets to tour the University of Texas Tower tonight.  It has been, thankfully, a rainy weekend, so I didn’t get the pre-sunset view that I was hoping for, but I enjoyed the tour and the 360 degree views of the city.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

A panoramic view from the observation deck, located below the clockface, looking south.IMG_0975

Eyes of Texas.  

I was on campus tonight to join an old college roommate and her family watch one of her daughters in a dance competition.   And her team won!  

I caught a quick shot of the UT Tower.  It is lit up in orange tonight; for Honors Day.  Hook ’em!

   
By the way, if you ever want to know what the occasion is for a lit up tower, checkout this link.  And a background on the university tradition of lighting the tower here.  

The Eyes of Texas.

Congratulations class of 2011.

Today was another welcome, wonderfully drizzly day.   We just need another 100 or so days like it.

My cousin graduated from the University of Texas yesterday with his bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering.  Today we drove to his parents’ house in San Antonio to celebrate with him, his family and friends.

On the way home we could see the UT Tower lit up in burnt orange from I-35.  But today, instead of the #1 on the tower, reserved for times when the Longhorns win a national championship, there was a #11, to honor the class of 2011.   Monte drove me around to at least 3 different vantage points on campus to try to get a decent shot.  This was the best one I captured.

Congratulations to all the new Texas-Ex’s!

Sep 6, 2010

Campus stop

We took a trip through the UT campus today, so Julie would know her way around when she comes back for a meeting tomorrow.    The campus is really nice.  Today is the Labor Day holiday, so there was not much traffic or people milling about (except for the person I captured in this photo, apparently).

This is a shot from the South of the UT Tower and the Main Building in front of it.   The inscription across the top of the Main Building says “Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free.”   Amen.

We also drove a bit around downtown and south of the river, through Zilker Park — stopping for the mandatory Sno-Beach sno-cone (the best sno-cones in the entire world, by the way).

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