Longhorn in Paradise

I guess since I am only posting once a month now (not by design), maybe I will just start titling the posts by the month. I mean, with all that has occurred since the last post, if I am not posting more often now, I probably never will! We went to California on a last second whim...jammed like rock stars and fought off the raging infernos that surrounded us. Just for those curious, the best way we found to fight off the fires was drinking copious amounts of Red Ruby Absolut mixed with Blood Orange italian soda. Also lots of M&Ms. Just seemed to work for us. Much thanks from the Knight family for the Brown's hospitality...they provided us a place to stay...use of their Expedition all week...food and beverage. Not that surprising for those of us who know the Browns, but pretty impressive in general. They are the bestest. I'm not saying that Hagen was affected by his trip to Cali, but "CAR" is his new favorite word, "Cars" is his favorite movie and he runs around the house saying "vroom vroom". Here he is in one of the Brown's classic automobiles. He had a blast!

We got back from Cali just in time to make the 9 hour drive down to Austin to spend time with my Sister and her family who were in Austin for my Mom's birthday! We had a great time seeing everyone and I think my mom enjoyed us all being there. 9 people in a one room shack that she lives in under the Congress Avenue bridge was a little tight, but we made it work. We didn't want to shame her by staying in hotels. ;-) Actually, you all have seen my mom's lakeside manor in earlier pictures. High style and we all loved the weekend.

The next week was Halloween and Liska and Hagen were Minnie Mouse and a monkey. We had some good friends, the Fears, come over (and now that I am writing this, I wonder why we didn't make some probably overused sarcastic comments about their last names and the holiday we were celebrating...missed opportunity). They were both very cute and we walked around the neighborhood and had them take candy from neighbors that we would later refuse to let them eat and then scarf on after they went to bed. Perks of parenthood. :-)

The other scary thing that happened on Halloween is that we purchased a brand spanking new vehicle...a 2007 Honda Odyssey! The Jeep had about 110K miles on it and the transmission was shot...rather than paying to fix it, we traded it in for Kat's dream machine. Looking forward to making long trips in it.

So, other than that, we have been staying pretty busy..hanging out with friends, raising a couple of brats and trying to keep the wolf from our door. I am about to end a 2 month forced sabbatical by starting a new project first week of December. Really looking forward to that! Shorter flight closer to home....should be a good project.

Oh yeah...for those who are interested, tune into HGTV at 8pm EST/PST or 7pm CST on New Year's Eve and check out a VERY special episode of Designed to Sell. :-)

Much love to all!

jak