Wacky Tacky Sweater Party Katie from our soccer team was having a party with her roommates. Here is the official eVite: The SUZ, Big Mike, Natty-O, Ems, Mere, Leah and Katie have joined forces to celebrate the upcoming holiday season tacky Christmas sweater style....... Join us for kegs, jello shots and sumo suits......(you can ask Big Mike about that one and blame him if he doesn't get them....) Bring anything else you may want to consume that evening....The Suz says to bring your holiday cheer, Katie says bring more alcohol. :) Tacky Christmas Sweaters required.....need I say more? Feel free to bring anyone we forgot..... :) PS: Google Maps and other 'map.coms' don't recognize our address, so use this link and just continue down Sheraton into the 'cookie cutter' neighborhood until you reach 815 Sheraton.....

Ron Paul Advertising In an effort to help promote Ron Paul around Austin, I bought some plywood and spray-paint and proceeded to cut out 2-foot tall letters of Ron Paul. After I cut all of the letters out with a jigsaw I attached stakes on the backs of them and staked them into my yard. A little bit of red, white, and blue paint at a diagonal, and voila, a Ron Paul sign was born. Klaus and I went out onto Hwy. 360 where they put all of the Christmas trees magically get put up each year. We staked the letters into the ground in that area only to find them taken down the next day. Needless to say, we got them back, and hiked atop one of the bluffs on 360 instead where as far as I know, they have been proudly standing since.

Axel Lane Fire Pit Unfortunately I only wound up shooting these two shots, but Tracy met me out at Axel Lane one afternoon to help me build a fire pit. Before actually building the fire pit (as it is within Austin city limits), I spoke with the city of Austin fire marshal to ensure that I was allowed to have a fire. Evidently the rule within the city limits is: so long as the fire is within a contained element (such as a fire pit) and people are using it to cook on, it is allowed (with the exception of when there is a city or county-wide burn ban in effect). J.C. Hall had apparently dumped a bunch of limestone rocks on the property and so after I dug out a large hole, we used the rocks to pad the fire pit. It was rather successful.

Hanging out in Las Vegas A bunch of us were in town for Eric and Amy's wedding and decided to go out and about one afternoon. Although some of us were staying at the Mirage and some of us at Ceasar's Palace, Mike, Dreux, and I mostly hung out at Ceasar's Palace playing no-limit hold 'em until the wee hours of the morning.

Sean at Abel Tasman National Park One of the later stops that we made after driving up the entire west coast highway (Hwy 6) was Abel Tasman National Park. Sean hooked up some sort of deal whereby we got to take a boat across the bays and got dropped off for a few mile hike through the tropical forest.

LaViolette After Rehearsal Party After Dreux and Amy's rehearsal dinner out at The County Line (on 2244), we headed over to the Crockett's house for some further drinking and partying. For some reason someone (most likely Crockett) came up with the idea of jumping over this piece of sheet metal left over from the Crockett's roofing. We were effectively trying to jump it like a hurdle, and slightly later like a high jumper. Fortunately nobody was injured, but in hindsight, it probably wasn't the best thing to be doing the day before a friend's wedding. ...especially when one of the participants was the best man.

Prairie Knoll Fence Building It was inevitable that we'd eventually have to fix the horribly broken and withered fences at Prairie Knoll. Though we'd already done most of Michael's side (unit B), there was still the little part near his concrete patio that needed to be done. The bulk of the work, however, was the entirety of my side (unit A), as well as the middle section of fence that split the property in two. I think my more favorite part was getting to use the gas-powered auger. I had the luxury of being in charge of it as I was the only one with real life experience on the machine. It definitely wasn't any less tiring.

10 Year High School Reunion If anyone has a high school reunion coming up and isn't sure whether or not to go, I would highly advise it. I wasn't really sure what to expect in a high school reunion, but it turns out that I had about the best time that one could. It was such a good time seeing faces that I hadn't seen in ten years and the best part of it was that everyone seemed 'nice'. Tracy and I stayed in the recommended hotel in downtown Houston, and it's a good thing that we did because I'm fairly certain we wouldn't have been able to get much further. "James E. Taylor High School class of 1997"

Kert at Tisa's Apartment Just prior to Tisa moving out of her shared apartment with Jen (near the Arboretum), Kert and I were over there one afternoon moving some stuff out. These are just some random pictures from that time.

Building the Octable Perhaps one of my favorite wooden creations - ever. The Octable, as it's name would imply, was an octagonally shaped wooden table. Both the table top and the base itself were actually octagons. The design took me awhile to come up with and there were was no hardware in the entire thing. Even the slide out drawers were entirely built from wood and glue. The table was designed for Tisa's nephew, Jonah, though he never received it. Tisa spent some time on and off painting it, but never finished the job. To my recollection, the table was eventually thrown away.