Foto Blog

Routes 1L, 1M, and 101

2011-07-07T20:06:00.001-05:00

Greenling is a local food company that sells local and organic produce, grains, dairy, meat... everything, really.
We've just started buying from them, because it turns out their prices are really reasonable.
And I love this picture because the banana looks so cartoon-y.

This boot was made for walkin'.

This picture was on the narration post, but I posted it again because I think this store bears
repeating as often as possible. They were closed when we went by, but presumably they
have a costume for each of these characters.

Why yes, I do live in the south; why do you ask?

Chad thought it looked like the blue umbrella had called all the green umbrellas together for a meeting.
This is at one of the trailer parks in town-- food trailers, that is.

One of the aforementioned food trailers. The one with the green umbrellas, in fact.

This looks like a place I'd like to spend some time.

The Hey, Cupcake! trailer. They have magnificent cupcakes. Come visit me and we'll go there.

This is what they do to your car if it doesn't pass inspection.

I can only suppose this is Fran.

This mural is on the outside of a school. I'm guessing it was donated by the class of '05.

A test pattern on the side of a barbershop. Why not?

I just voted for this sign in a "Best of Austin" poll. Yes, "Best Sign" was one of the categories.

I wanted a picture of the sidewalk, because it zigged and zagged around the landscaping, but you can't really
see that here. Instead, this is Chad squinting at the sun.

I was trying to fly, to show SuperTarget how to do it. Neither I nor the Target were successful.

Three-for-one day! 1L, 1M, and 101. And that's a 1L in the background, appropriately enough.

The clock at the park-and-ride. Very cool, eh?

The shade-giving kites at the park-and-ride.

Directions to the various stops. I'm not sure how necessary this is, but it's nice that CapMetro made the effort.

Route #30

2011-07-02T19:24:00.000-05:00

Here we have a trailhead sign that causes existential problems: It has two "You Are Here" spots.
We were actually at the "here" on the left.

Chad standing in the dried creek.

Part of the trail going up to the lookout point. It was hot and we got sweaty.

The view from the lookout point.

One of many owls we met. The animals in cages at the Nature Center are all rescues, and all of the birds
have some sort of injury that prevents them from going back to the wild. One of them was eating
a small bird when we came by, which was not a sight I was particularly happy to see.

Icky-looking water. And some fish.

Someone painted the solar system on this underpass. Cool, eh?

Our end of the solar system.

One of those trampoline-bungee contraptions at the mall.

This doesn't really do the view justice, especially with that tower in the middle of it.

At the end of the route.

Route #3

2011-06-28T22:27:00.001-05:00

Toy Joy, a really fun store just north of campus.
As far as I'm concerned, this is a must-see for our visitors, but so far, none of them have agreed.

Garden of Hope at a church. I'm pretty sure the statues are Mary and Joseph. The live one is Chad.

Okay, it's kind of hard to see in this picture, but the far lane is packed and barely moving.
This is why I choose public transportation, because sitting in that would make me crazy.

A bench. Nothing too exciting.

A red door (yes, I know I have a real gift for description).

To judge by the number of check-ins I see at La Madeline on Foursquare,
this is a popular place. I contented myself with taking a picture.

We can't seem to resist frozen yogurt at the moment.

A holding tank thing for water, to keep it from flooding the freeway, should it ever rain again.
Unfortunately, at the moment we have no need to hold any rain.

We've decided that we must get a picture of one of us at
a bus stop on every journey. If you enlarge the pic, you can
see the sign for the #3 in the corner.

I'm guessing they make omelettes here.

A thrift store which, to my regret, had just closed for the day when I arrived. But how cute
is that drawer set on the roof?

This was outside Top Drawer.

I never turn down the chance to take a picture of something with one of my
siblings' names on it.

I didn't even notice this from the bus, but I thought the artwork was pretty enough
to merit a picture.

Taco Shack.

A blue door. Not in Notting Hill.

Another shop that I would have happily gone into, but which was not open.

You'll need to enlarge this one for full effect. I took the picture because of the unlikely
juxtaposition of two services; the hair salon in front, and appropriately enough, the
colorectal doctors in the back.

Another unlikely one-- a pub + a dentist. Both in the same building.

This is the outdoor seating at the pub, complete with water jets to cool people off.

Nothing says "Medical Office" like some towers at the corners, presumably for
locking up difficult patients.

I don't know why this stop is so sublime. Perhaps because it's shady?

Marathon Boulevard! The Austin Marathon does not, however, run down this
street (at least, not in the past five or so years).

At first, this seemed like the sort of place I'd like to check out...

... until I saw the inside. Guess they're out of business.

A factory! For the yummy goodness that are kolaches!

When we first moved here, I thought this was a local chain. I'm still kind of
bummed that it isn't.

They do, however, have the best bike racks.

Waterloo Ice House. Note that the sawed-off bits of the canoes have not been wasted.

That's Children's Clothing on the left and The Birkenstock Shop on
the right. Presumably, the circle in the middle is for frisbeees or footballs
or whatever when the employees get bored.

Bible Bowl Pics

2007-04-17T19:41:00.002-05:00

I am generally opposed to posting pictures of other peoples' children on the internet, so we'll stick to adults and group shots.

Asleep on his feet already and we hadn't even left yet! He was driving, though, so he had plenty of time for sleeping on the road.

Yes, the adults enjoyed the gymnastic centre as much as the children did.

Our angels on Saturday morning (not the most flattering picture of some of them). Oh, and isn't the hotel room lovely? Nice and shiny, yes?

And at the end of the day.

Tired? Whatever do you mean?

This is what happens when I let an eleven-year-old mess with my camera.

Maxey Park under water

2007-03-17T16:32:00.001-05:00

So the "post-rain" pics proved popular over at Lubbock Daily Photo (sorry, I could only keep up the alliteration for so long), so here are a few more, for your viewing enjoyment:

Those weird spinning things.

Some trees, near the said spinning things.

Tire swing in the playground (think how fun it would be to swing above the water! Never mind getting dirty!).

More playground

There was a "dry" entrance to the connected equipment, and people were on it (including Chad, apparently)-- and I would have joined them if not for the fact that I was wearing scrubs.

I know this is really gross, but I was extremely curious as to what was going on down there! I haven't been back to investigate yet.

Camp Adventure

2007-03-17T16:07:00.003-05:00

Just before Brown Bag (in the flag room).

Kris addressing the assembled aim students and campers at Brown Bag.

Eli speaking on Wednesday night.

Chad asked me to get a picture of he and Eli together...

I think this may be more what he meant.

Everyone ready for the talent show.

Robbie, the excellent, and also well-dressed, emcee.

And the lovely Shannen, sharing her talent with us.

Working (but not dusting)

2007-03-03T09:41:00.000-06:00

Over at Lubbock Daily Photo, I joined in with the monthly theme day on Thursday; that theme being, "Men at Work." I had a few photos that I was not enamored with from earlier in the month, so on Wednesday at lunch I went outside (during another ever-popular dust storm) to catch these photos of roadworks that will never, ever be done.

This is similar to the picture I actually used, which prompted someone to comment that the men working looked like Fraggle Rock Dozers. Well, compared to that car, they certainly do.

I missed the rope/hook thing actually being lowered, because I was walking out of the building at the time. I do not know what they were doing with it.

I'm pretty sure this is a support pillar for a flyover of some sort in progress. (Ex-Aimers will be interested to know that you can almost see Daybreak in this picture.)

And here are our faithful Dozers once again. The gentleman off to the right never moved the entire time I was out taking pictures.

Geese and bicycles

2007-03-03T09:32:00.000-06:00

Here we are again... These are the mad geese that like to snack on humans. They followed Chad to our car the other evening, after (apparently) chasing him around for a while and biting his trousers. So it is not just me, and now he understands that I am not making all this up. They seemed intent upon chewing on the car, too, but then made the tactical decision to back off and seek out some food across the street.

Fortunately, the geese have not yet tried to eat my bike. I rode it to the supermarket yesterday, but it had to wait outside while I was shopping.

Finished!

2007-02-27T06:47:00.001-06:00

Here we have it, quilts #3 & 4. I admit that they are getting (a bit) easier; turns out I am learning how to do this as I go along. These are checkerboard quilts, as was the last one (my first quilt was a nine-patch, which I made for my sister's 21st birthday). Admittedly, the checkerboard is about the easiest quilt on the planet to make, and the nine-patch is probably second easiest, but at this point I don't care. I can get to complicated later on.

Anyway, this one is for a wee girl at church. The top is from the same materials I used for my last one, so it's nothing exciting, but the backing I bought just for this quilt-- and I quite like it. This quilt is fun on both sides.

And this slightly more manly quilt is for the wee girl's brother (didn't want to leave him out). This is the first time I've sewn with denim, apart from occasionally mending some jeans, so it was a new experience. I was quite pleased with this one.

Beware of dirt

2007-02-24T10:36:00.000-06:00

I'm busy watching the South Plains go flying by my window... yes, that's right, we are having a dust storm. Here are some photos:

Chad had to go running this morning as part of his training for the half-marathon. He came home coated in dirt. This is the park they ran in.

Driving home

We could film the tornado scene from The Wizard of Oz out there today.

The sky is still looking orange-y, and the wind is about 45 mph with gusts up to 61 mph. Visibility is 1/4 mile. Not sure how long this is planning to go on, but we aren't going for a walk today, that's for sure.

Lots of pink

2007-02-21T19:55:00.000-06:00

I just realised that, in what was a serious oversight on my part, I never posted these pics on here! And I was so proud of myself, too...

This was my most recent baby blanket; I decided to try quilting one instead of crocheting, just to see how I liked it. And also how good I am at it. This is not, however, the quilt involved in the sewn finger incident.

Another shot, this time showing the backing. The bear pictured belongs to me; Chad gave it to me after he proposed, so I didn't give it to anyone. He was just happy to be getting his picture taken.

New arrival on Aisle 3...

2007-02-16T23:51:00.000-06:00

Well, I don't fall into either category, and I have to say I am thankful for that. After we adopt, of course, I will be a "new mom", but in a slightly different way. Anyway, it is nice of the shops to offer these reserved parking spaces.

Chad in training

2007-02-04T10:36:00.000-06:00

So here we have my husband, proudly sporting his new "Team in Training" t-shirt. He is running a half-marathon in May as part of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society team, to raise money for treatment and cure for these diseases. His fundraising goal is $5000; a link to his site where you can donate is in the sidebar. If you have a spare $5 you can give to this cause, we would be so grateful! And so would the thousands of patients who depend upon the efforts of organisations such as the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Icicles on the roof

2007-02-03T10:58:00.000-06:00

We woke up this morning to icicles in a more conventional location-- hanging off the roof! I haven't investigated yet to see if any have landed on the stairs today. (If this statement makes no sense to you, then see one of my other blogs and look at yesterday's post.)

Not certain as to why this one came out so dark. We've noticed several times that we will get one or two really long icicles, like the previous picture, and then a bunch of smaller ones clumped together like this.

A few more, just for fun. And the sun, ably abetted by the lack of wind, has melted them all off already. However, I do not know what the actual temperature is.

Snow-- again

2007-02-02T18:28:00.000-06:00

The apartment parking lot, Kenosha Avenue, the church parking lot across the street. Taken from our patio.

So we were driving down Quaker, and I took a moment to reflect on the curious ways of this city: two weeks ago, when there had not yet been any winter weather and all we had was a negative forecast, the Lubbock school district cancelled school. Today, when there was real, live snow both on the ground and falling from the sky, school was in session. School districts in the surrounding areas, however, delayed for a couple of hours.

Maxey Park. I don't know what the geese do when it snows, but there weren't any to be seen this morning.

Who am I?

2007-01-31T19:20:00.000-06:00

I have no idea what species of waterfowl this particular bird is. If anyone knows, feel free to enlighten me. I've seen a few of them around the playa lake before, but this is the largest one I've seen thus far.

2007-01-31T18:52:00.000-06:00

Okay, I know this it not technically a good picture, but I really like it! The combination of a shaky hand and a shaky car (I left it running to keep warm while waiting for Chad after work), led to this very blurry look at Slide Road.

Fly away! Fly away!

2007-01-27T22:07:00.000-06:00

I thought about posting this picture in black-and-white, since there is no colour in it to speak of anyway. But I'm not sure how to do that without giving myself a serious headache. I'm sure there is a nice widget (or whatever they are called) somewhere on the internet to do it easily, but I don't have it yet. Anyway! I admit that Chad and I scared these particular geese on purpose to get them to fly a bit, so that I could get this picture. Unfortunately, the goose that tried to make a snack out of my leg last winter is not among this group, so I can't even call it revenge. Regardless of my evil intent, I do like watching geese whatever they are doing-- flying, swimming, landing, or in this case, running for their lives.

We went for a walk today

2007-01-27T18:46:00.000-06:00

We walked from our house to the library, about a 3.5 mile round trip. There is a park with a playa lake in it next to the library, so we had to go round the lake. This area is a means of drainage from the street (just in case it rains) into the lake. On the way there, I crossed on one of the concrete bits as well, but I didn't think I could be lucky enough to not fall in twice. So I crossed on the bit level with the street (thus adding a few feet to my trip). And I took this picture of Chad as he was halfway across.

Mission Fare

2007-01-27T00:30:00.000-06:00

So I've decided to "try my hand" at a daily photo blog for a few days before becoming official, that is, before actually joining the daily photo community. Click the "Lubbock Daily Photo" link to see it.

In the meantime, here are some pics from the Mission Fare last Sunday:

Montevideo, Uruguay

Lima, Peru

Arecibo, Puerto Rico (and the missionary's son!)

Kigali, Rwanda, Africa

Casa de la Esperanza (Children's Home), Anahuac, Mexico

Short-term Missions

Local Outreach Projects

And our own booth for Nottingham, England. We played Disney's Robin Hood, on the basis that you can't separate Nottingham and Robin Hood in the minds of Americans, and it was quite an attraction for the children.

Daily photo... sounds nice

2007-01-13T20:40:00.000-06:00

So I'm quite inspired by a collection of "daily photo" blogs which I have just run across! Sounds like an idea, especially since this blog has become the final resting place of our Scotland trip pics and nothing since then! All I have to do is get new batteries for the camera, and then remember to carry it around with me. So, no promises... but we shall see...

Hill walking and Loch Lomond

2006-10-08T14:15:00.000-05:00

Erskine Bridge, as seen from Charlie's car. While moving.

Loch Lomond

A slightly wider view of Loch Lomond.

The clouds were absolutely fantastic that day. No rain, though.

More of Loch Lomond, with the hills on the other side.

Hills, greenery, brilliant sky-- imagine seeing this every day.

Scottish heather!

Charlie and I, when we stopped to eat.

Chad in front of a funny grass hut thing we went past.

Edinburgh

2006-10-08T13:56:00.000-05:00

Edinburgh Castle

The Scottish coat-of-arms and motto: "Nemo me impune lacessit"

One of many bagpipe players-- this one was better looking than most.

This sign is tacked onto every intersection, in case the tourists forgot they were on the Royal Mile.

Outside the Scottish Parliament.

Behind the Scottish Parliament. This is apparently a very nice hill walk, but we were pressed for time.

The debating chamber inside Parliament.

Glasgow

2006-10-08T10:44:00.000-05:00

We felt welcome, indeed.

This was the chocolate bar we ate with much rejoicing.

The street Dawn lives on.

Another part of Castlemilk.

I was just wishing that our window would open this widely.

This is the church building in Castlemilk.

And the inside.

Reuniting with friends at West Mains.

Caroline and I, in her kitchen.

This is a random street in Glasgow; we got off the underground and were just walking along.

A kilt shop, one of many.

The St. George's Cross underground station. ("Cross" in this sense refers to a major intersection.) You can't really see it in this picture, but there was water under the rails, and in fact it was running water-- we could hear it at every station.

The Scotland Street school museum, which was an operating school until about 30 years ago. Schools of the early- to mid- 1900s had separate entrances for boys and girls (this one also had one for infants-- usually the first year or two of elementary school), and if I'm not mistaken, I believe that was common practise in the States at that time as well.

A Glaswegian school bus.

A look up one of the busiest streets in the city centre. We were in the second story of Pizza Hut when I took this picture. The red bus on the left is one of the open-topped tour buses, but since it was really rainy that day, all the tourists were crammed into the small covered bit at the front. I thought if they really wanted to experience Glasgow, they would have just sat in the rain, but oddly enough none of them asked my opinion.

A Scottish police car.

So we were walking up the street and I spotted this and said, "Oh! Brilliant! Doctor Who is here!" This is in fact an old-style police box; people can go to one of these and call the nearest police station if need be. This one, obviously, is no longer a functioning police box, but is in fact a very small coffee shop. There are still some of the old ones around, still working, though.

And this is a more modern police box.

This is Buchanan Street, in the pedestrian section of the city centre. A lot of the more posh shops will be found on this street. The building at the very top of the street (and I mean that literally-- it is a pretty steep hill) is a really nice mall. The screen on the front of the building, at the top, is mostly for adverts and that sort of thing, but it can be seen all the way from Castlemilk, several miles away.

This is one of the gardens in King's Park.

And another one.

A view of the city, with the mountains in the background, from the Viewpoint in Queen's Park.

Swans in the park.

And one very cute seagull.

If .899 sounds like a cheap price for gas to you, remember you have to multiply by 1.89 to convert from pounds to dollars, and then by 3.78 to get the price per gallon instead of per litre. Yes, that's right, gasoline is sold by the litre in the UK, and also in most of the rest of the world, I think.

Stoplights in the UK, when changing from green to red, go green-yellow-red as ours do, but when changing back, the yellow comes on at the same time as the red, before both go out and the green comes on. I'm not sure about the reason for this, although I would guess it's because most cars in the UK are standard, not automatic, and the yellow light is a signal to put the car back in gear.

The Scottish flag on top of a church. The "X" is called St. Andrew's cross, St. Andrew being the patron saint of Scotland, and apparently he was executed upon an X-shaped cross.

London

2006-09-11T10:31:00.000-05:00

Thanks to a helpful link from our friend James, I can tell you that the rocket-shaped building is the Swiss Re building, and its primary function is commercial/office space. And while I like the office I work in, I think I would like it even more if it looked like this. Also, this building was pictured in the season 2 premier of Doctor Who, and the aliens very rudely broke out all the windows. Anyway, we were standing on the Tower Bridge when Chad took this picture.

And this is the Tower Bridge itself.

The Tower of London, right next to the Tower Bridge.

A guard in front of Buckingham Palace.

They have these helpful notices printed on the streets in most of town, so that tourists won't be flattened because they looked the wrong way before crossing, and therefore didn't see the double-decker bus coming from the other direction.

We actually have a better picture of Westminister Abbey, but my Photobucket account is not cooperating. But this is the main entrance.

The driver of this bus must have seen that I have "Les Miserables Rules" printed across my forehead, and stopped so that I could take a picture, which was very kind. Actually I was delighted to get this shot. There are adverts up all over London for Les Mis, saying that it is about to become the longest-running musical in the world. And if we'd had more time, I probably would have dragged Chad into the nearest theatre to see it.

This is just one of several hundred signposts up around London. I put in the large version to make it readable; the arm just up from the bottom one is pointing to Westminister Abbey.

Just buses, nothing exciting, but we were standing in front of the Houses of Parliment at this point.

Big Ben

The London Eye, right next to the Thames. Apparently you can get a brilliant view of London from this thing, but they will charge you an exhorbitant amount of money to get on it. It was originally meant to be a 5-year exhibit kind of thing, but it turns out people quite like it, so I think it's now going to be more or less permanent. Also? I was still living in this country when they built it.

At the end of the day, we were seriously ready for bed. And this is us in our sleeper car.

The outside of the train. We were in car E, berths 5 & 6 (two beds in each room, but each bed is called a berth).

And the sign that welcomed us to Euston, right before we left London.

Thursday

2006-09-11T10:21:00.000-05:00

The airplane that took us from Lubbock to Houston.

This is what Chad and I look like when we're bored in an airport.

And this is what we look like early in the morning, in an airplane over the Atlantic ocean.

Nothing to see here...

2006-06-14T12:00:00.000-05:00

This blog will be for photos, once we get some of those. :) Created in anticipation of our digital camera we'll be getting soon.