Grassroots Music Festival Hits Hutch!

RiverSong Festival premiers in Hutch this Summer.

Here is me, Big Pete, mom and Walllllter in front of the main stage. Mom and I volunteered all weekend.
Romantica rocked the house on Friday night.
Pert' Near Sandstone played on Saturday, four guys, amazing sound:

And good ol' Jim Post was a real hit!
For hundreds of photos go to the Flickr feed.

See you all there next year.

Playing in Knoxville with Annie, Hope and Angela

I spent the Fourth of July with some of my favorite girls. We bought flower girls dresses, made pizza, went to the zoo and had lots of fun!!!

This was my first meeting of little Hope, but she instantly took to me and couldn't wiat to give me a hug!
At the zoo!
Ready to get her hands dirty!
Good little helper!
Mmm-mmm goood!
Bubbles in the yard.
Annie and her new turtle friend we met at the zoo.
Angela and Hope.
My little bug!

New England in May

We traveled to New England for a week to do some wedding planning, celebrate Micah & Erica's vows and enjoyed a fun week with friends and family!

Forest Beach - our ceremony site, we were checking out where we want the whole thing to take place.
The Jetty.
View of the Great Gatsby from the beach! Look at those porches - they are just waiting for us to sit and relax on them!!!
Then on to Micah & Erica's wedding in Boston: ISSB, Noel (his brother) and Micah at the reception.
Soon-to-be-groom and Groom having fun!
Micah, me, Erica and Eloise who came in from NYC/CT.
The next day we wondered the neighborhoods of Boston, hitting up Mike's for some famous cannoli.


And Beacon Hill. And Copley Square.
Next visit will be for the wedding in September!

My Alma Mater: Saying goodbye to Tracey

I recently traveled back to the University of Wisconsin to attend the memorial service for my college adviser, Tracey Gladstone-Sovell. She was one of the first people I met on campus back in 1998, she was one of the people I say daily as I went through my courses and she kept in touch with me after I graduated. I will miss her dearly and I am proud to say I was one of her students.

(Photo from Sept 2008 in Minneapolis at health care house party)

While back on campus, I met with a couple of my favorite professors, talked to some budding poly sci students (and some graduated ones), and popped in to the new University Center. And I have to say I was stunned by it. Really, a truly amazing building. I remember back when I was on the Student Senate we approved the money to build it. And, everyone I talked to about it seemed pleased with it.

Inside of the University Center:

Outside of the Center:

On the way to the airport, I stopped to see Mary Jo and the twins, grabbed a cup of coffee with Brian and met my mom for a nice lunch (I sure wish I lived closer so I could have lunches like that more often).

Overall it was a good trip and I am glad I got to be there.

San Francisco Trip, Take 2

More photos from our San Fran trip with Lucy. Here she is on a walk, playing in her Sox outfit and rocking out with her parents and uncle Ian.

Love this hoodie and the sunnies!!!
After Ian flew home it was time to head in to downtown for the conference I was to attend for the next four days. That afternoon after getting check in and going through my conference packet, my coworker Eric and I headed to the ferry building for a trip to Sausalito for lunch.

Little Lucy

We went to San Francisco recently to meet Ian's niece Lucy!

She is adorable! And we had a blast, here she is:

Above, Ian, Lucy and Ian's sister Becky off to the side.

Hamilton Pool

Last Friday when Robin and Lindsay were in town, ISSB, Robin and I went out to Hamilton Pool Nature Preserve. We have been wanting to go out and see this beauty since moving here. And we finally made it....and it was totally awesome.

If only the bacteria levels were lower so we could put our tootsies in!

After the day at the pool we went out to the Saltlick and had a wonderful TX BBQ experience!

Nice walking path all the way around.

Gorgeous tree growths as we walked down to the pool.

ISSB & Me: Maiden Voyage

And then there were two...ISSB got his bike this weekend and today we went on our first ride together. They are ready to go:
We went down to Town Lake Park to ride the path. It was very busy on this beautiful day!


Last week I tested out my new commuter bike coffee mug. It was a failure. So back it went to Mellow Johnny's. I guess I will have to keep looking. Currently I have my eye on one like this, but with fun colors.
Overall, we made is 6 miles in 42 minutes through the hills of downtown Austin.