Putt's 2007 Holiday Meal In keeping with Putt's many traditions (in fact, far too numerous to really keep up with), these photos were taken at his 2007 Holiday Meal party. The Holiday Meal is basically Thanksgiving, but about a week after the actual holiday. It was a pretty good pot-luck.

Dinner with the Grahams Preston and Sunni invited Tracy and I over for a lovely homemade meal, complete with entertainment from our favorite baby, Genevieve Graham. Evidently Evie had just recently taken to eating puréed foods and showed us how she loves her peas.

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.

Centex VOR and Bird's Nest (6R4) Given the amount of VOR navigation training I've been having to do lately, I thought that I would take a nice motorcycle ride out towards where the Center VOR signal comes from and see if I couldn't find the witch's hat for myself. After not being able to find my exit on 290, my cell phone GPS not working, and of course, not being able to get in touch with anybody when you actually need directions, I finally found my way and proceeded over to the VOR. Of course all is easy in hindsight. The VOR is reached by taking 290 east, then taking FM-973 north a few miles until you reach Gregg Lane. You pass Gregg Lane and about 50 yards on the left will be a small dirt road leading to the front of the VOR. It's not particularly inviting from the front with a number of government warnings, though oddly enough isn't fenced in from the backside at all. After checking it out, I headed west down Gregg Lane to take a look at Birds Nest (6R4). Not much there except for a single turf runway and a windsock.

Evening with Nick and Ruth While Tisa and I were staying with Nick and his parents in Auckland, and just a few days before we took off to the Fiji Islands, we went out for a nice dinner. Nick and Ruth took us to a cool little place they knew of where the wine didn't stop flowing.

Moth Photo Shoot This was a rather interesting little photo project that just kind of came to light one evening. I was about to enter my room when I noticed this tiny speckle of what looked like paint on the side of my door frame. I went to pick at it when I realized that it was in fact a very small moth. I don't know why I decided that I would shoot some pictures of it, but I did. Not only that, but after experimenting with some lighting and the digital macro options, I was able to get some details of this little critter that I never thought would be possible with a standard point and shoot digital camera. Kudos to Canon for their product!

Preston's 29th Birthday Another year gone by, only this time there are a number of babies running around. The Graham's had a little get-together at their house for Preston's 29th birthday and Tracy and I were invited to hang out. We got Preston a remote controlled helicopter for the day, though it turned out to be a pretty crappy one after all. Half of the night was spent playing with babies, the other half of the night was spent playing Catchphrase with babies.

Another 311 Mary Party As with all of the 311 Mary parties that I attend, this one was as fun as the others. I had an especially fun time hanging out with Danielle's cousin, Roxie, at the party, and managed to keep the guitar to myself for most of the evening playing some tunes for everyone outside.

Out with Carly and Justin Prior to Carly and Justin getting married, I met up with them (as well as Putt and Jeff) over at Club DeVille. A bunch of Justin's friends were in town for whatever reason and that was pretty much the entirety of the group.

Pancake Rocks After our lengthy drive up the west coast highway (Hwy 6) with Sean, one of our stops was at the famous Pancake Boulders. Here is a little background on the subject from Wikipedia: Punakaiki is a small community on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand, between Westport and Greymouth. The community lies on the edge of the Paparoa National Park. The Pancake Rocks are a popular tourist goal at Dolomite Point south of the main village. The Pancake Rocks are a heavily eroded limestone area where the sea bursts though a number of vertical blowholes during high tides. Together with the 'pancake'-layering of the limestone (created by immense pressure on alternating hard and soft layers of marine creatures and plant sediments), these form the main attraction of the area. The Pancake Rocks are presently explorable by a number of walkways winding through the rock formations, parts of these wheelchair-accessible and others carved into stairways up and down the rock faces. State Highway 6, the only through road on the West Coast, passes through the town.