Driving With the Family As a good portion of our time spent with my family in New Zealand was spent on the road, these are a few pictures of us driving in the South Island.

Krista's Bridal Photos This was actually quite a story that I was part of. Firstly, I had agreed to take Krista's bridal photos for her just a few weeks before her big day. Evidently she was pleased with my previous photography and asked if I would do it. I kindly accepted. On the day that we actually went out to shoot the pictures, I turned out to be terribly ill. I think I eventually turned out to have strep throat, or something similar, but I still went out to Lake Travis with Krista and her mom. Though the initial photo shoot wasn't all that bad, we had the luxury of cruising around one of the nicer sailboats on Lake Travis. Although I was getting worse by the minute, the onset of cold rain is what really made it terrible. Krista's mom, Donna, and her friend were very quick to make sure that they ran inside and left me to help secure the vessel - despite my now shivering and sickly condition.

Dave and Mike Adventure Race This gallery is a set of photos from Dave and Crockett competing in the 2004 Urban Adventure race in Austin. The concept basically works like this, you get yourself a teammate and a few other people at your 'base'. At the start of the race you are given a clue sheet full of [semi] difficult riddles of landmarks around town. The idea of the base team is to have them help you with the questions and to provide you with online map support and anything else that would be technologically beneficial to a giant scavenger hunt.

East Side Boil 2008 So another long year had gone by and as April approached, anticipation of the 7th annual East Side Boil was upon us. This year was bigger and better than ever with over 300 people showing up to the event, and over 600 lbs of crawfish being consumed. Kudos to Mr. Daniel Putt for pulling off another fantastic party and also to Mr. Jeff Smith for cooking all 600 pounds of food. Here is the original eVite sent out by none other than D. Starr Putt himself: It's that time again. After last years event, the bar has been raised, expectations are high, and committees have been organized. Please mark your calendar for April 19, 2008 for an event that can't be missed. www.eastsideboil.com is up. It is a work in progress. Our photography team will be updating the site with Pictures after the event is over. 1 week to go!!! See you all there. DPutt

Looking at Some Trees There happens to be a commercial nursery immediately next to the soccer place in Pflugerville. Since I am working on building up the Axel property, I just wanted to have idea of what trees I could put out there. Unfortunately the place doesn't deal directly with individuals and so they said I needed a landscape architect to be in touch with them.

Tube Kujda 2008 Outing With the group finally in Austin (after lengthy bus rides from Houston and Dallas), we took to the streets of Austin. Starting with a late dinner at Paradise Cafe, we then made our way over to the west 5th street area for a simply drink or two. Eventually back over to 6th to hop around some bars before ending the night at Shakespeare's Pub. I think a good time was had by all, but this wasn't supposed to be the late night outing as we still had a full day of tubing ahead of us.

My Last Day in LA For my last day in Los Angeles (for this trip at least), Liz and I had breakfast with our old high school buddy Eric Pirooz. This was followed by a most spectacular afternoon at one of the country's best art museums, The Getty. Having never been there before, I was certainly impressed with the place. To anyone who is interested in going, be advised that while the museum entrance is free, they essentially force you into paying $20.00 to park.

First Day with Liz in LA This was definitely the most fun-filled first day in Los Angeles that I could have spent. Liz had picked me up at the Burbank airport the night before, but this was the first time I'd actually been able to get out and see the place in the day light. After some breakfast, we went an listened to a pipe organ performance at an old cathedral in town before visiting Damian Kulash's house up the street from Liz (for those non-hipsters out there, he is the frontman for the band "Ok Go"). We went out to Santa Monica and enjoyed the beach for a few hours, had some delicious dinner, and then met up with Daisy Eagan and her new boyfriend, Kurt Bloom, over at the Dresden where Liz was working. Even my old high school buddy, Vance Kotrla, stopped by for a drink.

Stone Wedding and Reception Liz and I had been talking for months about going to Sara Lattis' wedding together (she invited me as her date) and so we finally made it there. I suppose this was technically the first date we had planned together, though we had gone with the Galbinceas to the Renaissance Fair the day before. The wedding was held in downtown Houston at the Aquarium. It was a really cool setup with a beautiful view of the city, and we were even able to ride the Ferris wheel outside.

Musical Sales Photos I had always made a small promise to myself never to sell my musical equipment (first broken in 2002 when I sold my Tama drum kit), but as with most things in life, points of view change. Being in Austin, it was pretty easy to unload all of this equipment at pretty premium prices. Included was my pristine Fender Deluxe Hot Rod amp, my Fender 5-string Banjo, a foreign Fender Stratocaster, and my Charvel Bass guitar with Marlboro amp.