Hughes Wanaka House for Christmas Since Tisa and I didn't really have anywhere that we could go for the Christmas holidays, Emma's parents, John and Anne Hughes, said it would be lovely for us to spend Christmas with them. We got to have some great New Zealand home cooking, enjoy a family Christmas, and even play some rugby with the Hughes' family and friends.

Out with Roni and Maria This was the first time that I had met two of Tracy's very good friends, both of them from highschool, Maria and Roni. We all headed downtown for a show, had a number of drinks, and then went to the Beauty Bar before closing time. We wound up going to Magnolia's on west 6th after closing time with one of Roni's friends too. It was a pretty late night, but plenty of fun was had.

Trip to Sea World I went on a trip to Sea World in San Antonio with most of Tracy's family including her niece. The day started off a little slow with the crowds, long lines, and of course Texas summer heat, but saving grace was just around the corner. Sometime just around us having lunch (and by no surprise a pretty terrible one) the sky opened up and a huge thunder storm had rolled in. Though the park wound up being 'closed' (the attractions were shut down for about an hour or so), it cleared most people out of the park virtually eliminating the lines and consequently allowing us ride the roller coasters over and over again. ...not to mention that it cooled the place down pretty nicely.

Jetskiing with Tracy Just some summertime fun. Tracy and I headed down to my parents beach house (which I suppose is synonymous with their house too) and spent an afternoon in the protected area jet skiing. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could get the jet ski up to about 65-70 MPH (though for some strange reason it reads in KmPH instead of just MPH).

Austin FlugTag 2007 Tracy and I went with her family to the Austin FlugTag and even managed to get Dreux a ride down there too. This is the first FlugTag that Red Bull has sponsored in Austin since 2003. I wasn't too particularly impressed with any of the flying contraptions, but it was a pretty amusing event over all.

Pisa & Lucca From Tracy and Katie's blog: Today was our side trip day to Pisa and Lucca. We opted to go to Lucca first since it had the earliest connection. Once we got to Lucca we ran into a couple from our Siena wine tour. We ate lunch and then rented bikes to ride around the town. I was loving being back on the bike and giving my calves a rest when my chain feel off about halfway through. If you know me, then you know I often have chain issues, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise to me. I couldn't get it back on the gear because it was covered, so I sent Katie on her way and pushed it back to the shop. I was frustrated with the situation until I realized that I AM in Italy. Then we headed to Pisa to take the obligatory pics with the Tower. Not much else to see there really, but now we can say that it really does lean.

Cinque Terre From Tracy and Katie's blog: We are winding down a wonderful day in the Cinque Terre, five tiny towns, connected by a local train on the coast. The towns are picturesque, and with Tracy sitting on the beach, they look like a postcard. But seriously, this is the Italy that I have dreamed about and we saw a lot of beautiful countryside and interesting locals today. I have really enjoyed the smaller towns, and yesterday on my bike in Lucca I may have pretended that I was one of the Van Trapp family, while riding through town. (You know the scene, where the kids are dressed in the drapes from Maria's bedroom.) Anyway, I was pretty impressed with the Leaning Tower of Pisa, because even though I know it has been leaning since construction, it was affirmining to see it for myself. I will let Tracy post about today's hike across the Cinque Terre. All I can say about it was that it was long and hot, and that I am not a mountain climber. I guess that my travelling talents are limited to drinking wine, trying to speak Italian, buying scarves,and eating almond biscuits. All very honorable skills indeed. Tomorrow we head to Venice and then begin the last leg of our journey.

Stunt Flying in 4951A Although there aren't actually any photographs in this series as the name suggests, Dustin and I were in fact out doing some stunt flying with Barb. I believe on this particular occasion we were actually working on a variety of stall spins. Dustin departed KAUS with Barb, worked on the maneuvers, landed at Lockhart (50R), and then I took over from there. A stall spin, to anyone curious, is basically where you idle the plane, but rather than losing altitude, you continue pitching up to keep the plane at a level altitude. Of course, eventually you have to pitch up so much that you wind up stalling. Just before this point (when the stall horn starts going off), you pull the yoke full back and apply full left rudder (which would normally make the plane yaw left). This combination causes the plane to effectively enter into a spin while nose diving. Though it is a thrilling sensation, we practice it specifically to understand how to control a spin and how to effectively get out of one should one ever inadvertently occur.

David Weekley Mueller Options After my first visit to the David Weekley model home (where I was picking out options for my Mueller home), I decided that I would need to take some more qualified experts with me to make real decisions. I decided to see if Preston wouldn't mind going up there with Tracy and I just to get a few ideas about some things. Naturally the both of them came along and were of great assistance helping me to pick out nice options. We explored the model home in the back afterwards.

New Years Eve 2007/2008 In keeping with the tradition of camping for the New Years, I volunteered my Axel Lane property as a place for us to go. It's just as dark and quiet out there as any of the real camping places we'd go to, only it's much closer to town. A number of people came and went throughout the night, but a small group of us actually camped out on the property. Crockett, Eric, and Emerson brought some BB guns out there and we set up a shooting range of sorts with aluminum cans and glass bottles. Later in the night, after much heavy drinking, Dave Krewet let us (mostly Klaus and Amy) take turns driving his large F-350 around the property. I told them that I would welcome them knocking down and otherwise killing all of the china berry trees. They did.