A Life Less Published

Butterflies!!

2012-02-18T04:59:00.002-08:00

Today we went to the Penang Butterfly Farm as our weekend excursion, and we have to say that we were most impressed with it. They have done a great job in putting together a very tourist friendly location that is easy to find, very clean and very professional looking. Besides the hundreds of butterflies, they also have: water dragons, an alligator snapping turtle, giant Malaysian millipedes (that you can hold), luminescent scorpions, some vipers, frogs, orchid preying mantis, and even some HUGE scarab beetles.

We all had a great time - Emily loved the butterflies and the lizards. She knows the spanish word for lizard (lagarto) and yells it anytime we see one. It's a very close race between lizards and dogs as to which one she gets more excited about.

Here are some photos from the day:

"Emily - I think the paparazzi have found us!"

All you had to do was dip a finger in the honey water and the butterflies would drop by and give you a few kisses. Emily wasn't the only one who enjoyed this part.

Looking at butterflies sure works up an appetite, so we stopped off at Tree Monkey a Thai-ish restaurant that "is nestled amidst lush tropical foliage overlooking the coastline, the Tree Monkey at Tropical Spice Garden offers guests a unique jungle dining experience." It's true. We liked the food, but loved the experience.

First Days In Penang

2012-02-15T05:30:00.001-08:00

We've been in Malaysia now for about 10 days and are finally starting to feel settled in a little bit. We have:

Internet installed
Furniture (which required a 4 hour each way drive to Kuala Lumpur)
Cable
Someone to clean up after me and Emily (that's not Tica)
Someone to take out the trash (that's not me)
Have found the grocery stores, banks, places to eat, a day care for Emily
Have been to the hospital twice - everybody is fine now, but there were some scary moments
A new baby on the way (2.0 will be here in August)
Have been the victim of a crime (hit and run)
Have been to the police station (3 of them to be exact) to report the hit and run
And have little Emily back on a sleep schedule - finally. I think she's the most adjusted of all of us as you can see from the photo below.

The above picture and the two below are from our ocean facing balcony. We also have a construction site facing balcony and a balcony that faces the mountains and the town of Pulau Tikus (which means island of rats), but this one has the best breezes. And despite being on the opposite side of the house from the kitchen is where we like to eat most of our meals at home.

A typical day looking down and out from the same balcony

The photo below is the view that greets me every morning from my bedroom window. It's definitely a different experience living in a high rise apartment, but the views are stunning all day long. I find myself looking for excuses to gaze out the windows - and they're not hard to find.

This photo is the view just to the left of the one above that includes the Reclining Buddha temple(golden spire), and the Burmese Buddhist temple (across the street from the Reclining Buddha. There is also a Mosque there somewhere that I have yet to find, but I get to hear the beautiful echos of The Call to Prayer a few times a day so I know it's there.

We still have a lot to do before we'll feel we're completely settled, but it's nice to have couches to sit on, dishes to cook with, and many of the other niceties that make modern life so comfortable.

11 Months

2011-09-28T21:28:00.000-07:00

Emily is a month away from being one year old!!
She gets funner by the minute and is so active that it's hard to keep up. Some of her favorite things at this point:

- Hats! Every time she's in our room she points to our closet so we take her to try all the hats.
- Ball. She loves to kick it and also knows how to play with us. She throws it at you and expects for you to throw it back at her
- Daddy - yes, as hard as that is to accept; she is daddy's little girl. She is crazy about him and so is he about her!
- Coo Coo clock. We have a Coo Coo clock that Tia Fantina brought us a few years back and every time she sees it she points at it so we make it sound. She dances at the sound of it.
- Dancing. This little girl can't deny her Dominican blood. She loves dancing and as soon as you start clapping and singing to her she's shaking her body to the rhythm.

Milestones
- Pulling her self up. She pulls up on everything and has started to let go for a few seconds with enough balance to stay standing.
- Top teeth. After a long and painful announcement the top teeth finally broke through.
- No. She understands the meaning of the word and shakes her head whenever she doesn't want any more food or water.
- Understanding. She understand certain phrases in both English and Spanish such as: Donde esta la pelota?
Let's go take a bath
Toca la musica
Where are your toes?
Where is the hat?
A bailar

Checkout all the rest of the pictures we uploaded to Picasa using this link.

Teeth and Bath

2011-07-31T19:27:00.000-07:00

Emily recently turned 9 month old and it is hard to believe how much she has grown.

Milestones
- Master crawler. Emily has been moving around since she was 7 months in the cutest army crawl. Still to this day she does not lift her belly to move but she moves really fast.
- Pulls herself up. She can now pull herself up all by herself and enjoys walking by holding our hands.
- Teeth. Emily finally got her bottom two teeth just before turning 9 months. She bites pretty hard too.
- Sitting up. Emily can sit up by herself from any position. One day she just woke up and did it, pretty amazing.
- Clapping. At school Emily learned to clap at the sound of "If you're happy" song. As soon as she hears the beat she smiles and starts clapping
- My favorite, her tongue! Emily found her tongue today and it is the cutest thing ever. When I ask her where her tongue is she sticks her tongue out.

Her favorite things
- Water. She loves bath time since she was born and has now found a passion for the water park next to our house and the pool
- Stairs. She loves going up the stairs and whenever we're not watching she takes off and starts the first one but looks back to see if we're not going to stop her. When we come after her she giggles. Super cute.
- Daddy. She is still a daddy's girl and although she picks me sometime she is crazy for her dad and so is he for her. Arves would bring her to bed with us every day if I let him.
- Electric plugs. Since we go after her whenever she tries to play with the plugs this is now one of her favorite things to play with. She knows she gets a reaction from us and she loves it.
- Pinching. This favorite hurts. Whenever Emily is tired or we're putting her to bed she pinches the back of our arms or our necks super hard. As soon as she got the two finger grasp she has not stopped practicing on us!!

I can't say this enough, we are the luckiest ones to have such a wonderful little girl. We love her!

4th of July Milestones

2011-07-09T11:33:00.000-07:00

This 4th of July weekend was amazing. We loved spending time with friends and family and being with Emily all day.

It is hard to believe how much she changed in just four days; here are a few of the milestones we captured:
- Starting saying mama
- Learned how to climb stairs, she has to work pretty hard since she doesn't have a lot of strength on her arms but she can do it all on her own
- Speed crawling after Millie (Videos to come)
- We can now see her bottom teeth! They're not out yet but are very very close

Cute Millie before she got tired of the stroller.

Daddy and his little princess. Emily ADORES her dad; I even got the cold shoulder today which was so sad. Cute but sad nonetheless.

Logan

2011-07-09T11:21:00.001-07:00

A few more pictures while we were in Logan visiting Arves' family and tia Luli.

Bubbles and horses

2011-07-09T11:11:00.000-07:00

While in Utah Emily got to play with bubbles for the first time. Needless to say, she loved them.

She also got to pet the horses with aunt Katie and daddy.

4th of July in Utah

2011-07-08T19:48:00.000-07:00

We had a great time in Utah this 4th and realized once again how much we miss our friends and family there.
Here are a few pictures to recap our trip. So fun to have my sister in Utah, I just can't get enough of that girl!! Miss you Lulita.

Day at the park

2011-04-15T19:08:00.001-07:00

5 Months

2011-04-03T09:19:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe but Emily turned 5 months old a few weeks ago. Her personality is starting to come out and she's such a princess! She knows what she wants and is sure to let you know about it. She can go from laughing and giggling to crying mad from one second to the next just so you continue to pay attention to her.
Emily ADORES her daddy, she lights up whenever he comes in the room. She actually opened up her arms for daddy for the first time this weekend asking to be picked up.

She's also getting much better with her hands; one of her favorite games is to take her paci out with one hand, pass it to the otherand try to get it back in her mouth. She is getting better and better at it, but if she doesn't get it back in her mouth after a few minutes she gets really mad. Pretty funny.
Emily can play peekaboo covering and uncovering her face all by herself! We're still not sure who is more excited about this game - her or us
She continues to be amazed by her hands. She just stares at them as she moves them around.
Emily is the most adorable little girl and we feel so greatful to have her in our lives. She's simply amazing.

First Swing

2011-04-03T09:08:00.000-07:00

We took Emily to the Brushy Creek park for a run and afterwards played on the swings. She loved it! She's so little that you could only see her head but she enjoyed every minute of it.

4 Months

2011-04-03T08:52:00.000-07:00

During this month Emily started reaching for things and rolled over a few times! She was also much more aware of the world around her.

3 Months Old

2011-04-03T08:33:00.000-07:00

This was the big smile month when Emily started being aware of her environment and realized how funny we are!

Emily's first coos

2011-01-23T10:11:00.000-08:00

Over the past few weeks Emily has started making all kinds of noises. Here is a video of some of her first coos. See if you can catch some of the more interesting noises she can make at the end of the video. One of Emily's funniest video yet!

Christmas in Austin

2011-01-09T08:15:00.000-08:00

This year we had all my family come down to meet Emily and celebrate Christmas. With a total of 10 people in the house, our house was packed. A bit stressful at times but we loved it and wouldn't change it for the world!
We had my parents, my brother Rafa and his family (Shana, Roxanna, and Rafelito), and my sister Luli.
We celebrated Christmas Eve with our friends Todd, Heather, Isaac, and my cousin Michelle and her mom. We had an awesome time.

Christmas morning Roxannita was the most excited of all.

I've always liked Christmas but seeing her so excited that morning made me realize how much more fun the upcoming years are going to be now that we have Emily with us.

We tried to take advantage of having everybody together to take family pictures. Unfortunately it was too cold and we couldn't get Emily out of her carrier. You can still see her little head though.

2 Months Old

2010-12-28T13:52:00.000-08:00

It feels like time is flying by. Emily turned two months old on December 21st and she's already changed so much. Arves and I decided to list a few of the things we already miss and new things she's doing that we absolutely love.

Things we miss:

Her grunts - When we first brought her home Emily grunted all night long. She still grunts but definitely not as much as she used to which, makes for a more pleasant night although we still miss it.
How little she was - Emmy was born at 6 lbs 12 oz and now I realize how tiny she really was. She's much bigger now (10 lbs) and starting to get those lovely rolls on her thighs, we can't wait for more!
The way she would scrunch - Whenever Emily woke up from a nap she would strech arching her back and moving her legs up to her tummy as she moved her face from side to side. She still stretches now but not as curled up.

New accomplishments:

Smiles - Emily definitely has those down and is quite a delight to see her face light up when she looks at us, or at the fan :)
Coos - She's starting to coo more and more these days and makes the cutest little sounds.

Laughs - Every now and then we get lucky and get a laugh out of her. She has not mastered this yet but is getting better and better every day.

From day one Emily has been good at tracking and following objects and at tummy time. She can already lift her head and part of her chest. She's always been such a happy little girl and we love her to death!

Sam and Anya Do Austin . . . Scavenger hunt style

2010-12-12T10:51:00.001-08:00

For Thanksgiving Sam and Anya flew in to meet Emily. Well that, and eat some turkey. In honor of their visit we put together a photo scavenger hunt of Austin including a few of the images below. They did an outstanding job and found all of the clues. Here's a few example images

First things first you must take a picture with the cutest thing in Austin . . .

This famous mural is on the side of an interesting art studio that sells vintage looking, neon-highlighted signs and canvas drawings. It's definitely a good place to start an Austin tour . . . and possibly use the bathroom.

The Eiffel Tower:

Best view of Austin (and Austin's favorite Blues singer)

Yes, Austin is an eccentric place . . . take this cow for instance

Largest metropolitan bat colony (both the bats and the colony in this instance)

We needed a little help in climbing the moon towers

It was great having Sam and Anya here and we can't wait to see them again soon!

Emily's Turns 1 (month)

2010-11-21T17:47:00.000-08:00

Emily is one month old today, which is weird because it feels like she was born yesterday. We can hardly believe how quickly time is passing and how much we have already come to love this happy little girl.

Since it was such a beautiful day we dressed her up in some new clothes (recently imported from her fans in Spain) and went outside with the camera to watch the sun set and capture a few of our favorite Emily faces. See if you can pick out my favorite ;).

Hoy Emily cumple un mes de nacida, lo que parece extrano ya que se siente como si fue ayer. Es dificil creer lo rapido que pasa el tiempo y lo mucho que queremos a nuestra bebe tan contenta.

Como el dia estaba tan precioso, la cambiamos en ropa nueva (que le mando su tia Carla) y salimos a disfrutar el dia y a tomar fotos de las expresiones de Emily. A ver si pueden seleccionar cual es mi favorita ;).

Emily Visits Inks Lake - Emily Visita el Lago Inks

2010-11-10T19:02:00.000-08:00

This post is dedicated to my dad who, despite all the frustrations of using a computer, has made an effort to check his email and even check out our blog to see his new grandaughter. Therefore I'm writing it both in Spanish and English. Love you dad!

Esta publicacion esta dedicada a mi papa, quien a pesar de todos los problemas que tiene con la computadora, ha hecho el esfuerzo de revisar su email y hasta aprendio como ver el blog, todo con tal de disfrutar a su nueva nieta. Asi que la publicacion esta escrita en Ingles y Espanol. Te adoro papito!

At barely a week old we decided to take Emily to Inks Lake for some family pictures. It was cold outside so we had to time it just right or Emily would start complaining about the cold, just like mama she doesn't do well with the cold air, I'm sure it's the half dominican blood in her.

Con poco mas de una semana de nacida, decidimos llevar a Emily a uno de los parques de Austin llamado Lago Inks para tomar fotos. Ese dia hacia mucho frio asi que teniamos que posicionar a Emily para la foto y rapidamante tomar la foto antes de que Emily comenzara a llorar. Al parecer a Emily no le va a gustar mucho el frio como a su mama; debe ser la sangre dominicana dominando.

Here are a few of Emily's many faces. Arves and I could stare at that little face all day long!

Aqui estan varias de las caritas que hace mi ni~a. Arves y yo podemos pasarnos todo el dia velandole el sue~o y viendo su carita!

Abuela Mechi was still in town and we got a few shots of the two of them.

Abuela Mechi todavia estaba con nosotros y pudimos tomar varias fotos de Emily con su abuela.

Proud mom and dad

Padres orgullosos

Three generations

Tres generaciones

Thank you mom for all your help. It made the adjustment to our new lifes a lot more enjoyable. Love you.

Mamita gracias por toda tu ayuda. Tenerte con nosotros nos ayudo a disfrutar los cambios de tener a Emily en nuestras vida. Te adoro.

Emily's First Week

2010-11-02T14:17:00.000-07:00

Emily arrived at 11:35 PM Thursday night October 21st. Since then she's been surrounded by love from all our friends and family.

Both my mom and our good friend Doug waited for her arrival at the hospital while Arves and I welcomed little Emily to this world. It was an amazing experience although a very long labor.

Here is a picture with some of the many visitors Emily had on Friday.

We all came home on Saturday and Emily has been wonderful. Here we are leaving the hospital.

Hard to believe but Emily already has her list of likes and dislikes. Emily loves being in the sun and going for walks with mom and dad in her stroller. She also loves her morning strolls with dad in her Bjorn. On the other hand she does not like having her arms tightly wrapped when swaddled; just like her daddy!

Emily also loves to eat. Here is a video of Emily's first interactions with daddy while mom went to the store. She got pretty close to eating her hands :)

We are in love and couldn't be happier. Emily is the cutest baby and Arves and I are very blessed to have her in our lives.

Emily Comes Home

2010-10-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

After a few long days of painful contractions (about a week or so) we finally headed off to the hospital on the morning of October 21. We were in labor for over 20 hours, but at 11:35 PM all that work became worth it as our little Emily Margarita joined our lives. It was an amazing experience to see her come into the world!

Another amazing part of the experience is that even though we live deep in the heart of Texas we had family waiting in the waiting room and an amazing outpouring of love from the friends we have made here in Austin. Both Doug and Mechi were here and were able to meet little Emily within the first 1/2 hour of her life, and we have had numerous visits from our friends here in central Texas who seem to love Emily almost as much as we do.

I could go on for hours about the birth experience, but I know why you are all here, so on to the photos . . .

Here is the first photo I took of Emily. She was still a little swollen, but already looked cute to me.

The room we were in was amazing! Here is a photo with our nurse, Lisa, who helped with the delivery - she was a lot of fun and extremely helpful.

Here she is in her mommy's arms right before her first shots and first bath.

Speaking of shots and baths. She did not like her first bath at all! She turned bright red and threw a fit after which she was exhausted. The first and second photos are of her before the shots and bath. Note the tranquility. The third is of her being dried off, after said shots and bath . . . she was furious!

One thing that has made us laugh quite frequently is the size of her feet. Emily has HUGE feet! The nurse even made fun of her because the foot print they took barely fit in the box on the paper.

Sleeping in her hospital bassinet

With Dad

Home at last with all of the flowers her new friends brought her.

She has been such a sweet little girl. She rarely cries and sleeps pretty well . . . though come to think of it, she is starting to demand that her daddy carries here everywhere he goes when she is awake.

Baby bump

2010-10-01T20:32:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe our due date is less than a month away. We had our last ultrasound this week and our little baby is healthy, just waiting for the right time I guess.

I'll be 37 weeks on Monday and have absolutely loved being pregnant; our bags are packed and the baby's room is pretty much ready. Arves and I cannot wait for our baby bean to get here!

Things I'm going to miss:

- Feeling bean move; the kicks, hiccups, rolls... I love it and it makes me smile!

- Being with our baby 24/7 and knowing he/she is okay

- My belly

- Sleeping in because "I'm pregnant" and not feeling too guilty about it

- Being just the two of us

Things I'm looking forward to:

- Meeting our little baby and finding out the sex

- Starting our new life as a family

- Being able to run again (I was only able to make it to 30 weeks)

- Seeing the scale go down (hopefully) instead of up every time I step on it

- Being able to roll in bed without having to wake up

- Fitting back in my regular clothes

Arves took this amazing picture and I've entered us to win on a baby bump contest from What to Expect. You can vote for us at this link

A Few Home Upgrades

2010-08-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

We're getting closer to the much awaited birth of our lil Bean, and have gotten the home improvement bug. Not quite to the level of a few of our friends (TW tore his house completely down to the frames), but still enough work to keep us busy and sweating on the weekends. Here are two of the more major projects we worked on.

1. A new deck!!! We've been wanting to add a deck for a few years now, so this is a very welcome addition.

Here is our back patio before building.

Another view of the patio - you can see that there is barely enough room for Tica

And a view of the house from our back fence line

We are still waiting on the wrought iron railing, but here is the semi-final deck. We cut one of the side railings on the patio off and added access to the deck via 3 steps.

We also added another access to the deck from the landing of the existing stairs.

And finally, here's a view from the back fence line. As you can see, it's a pretty tall, so we're considering a small privacy fence so our neighbor, Lynn, doesn't feel as if we're stalking her

Now all we need are some cheap chairs, and some guests!!! Any takers?

2. Painted and added chair rail to the nursery. Tica is really the design inspiration behind this room. She chose the colors, ceiling fan, and the chair rail, and even a really cool light switch cover.

Before . . . drab, boring beige . . .

After . . . fun, gender-neutral, bright colors. Hopefully Bean likes the light!

We're really excited (and exhausted) about these new upgrades. Mostly because it means we are a few steps closer to being ready to receive the newest member of our family!!

Bayahibe - DR part 1

2010-06-03T18:25:00.000-07:00

Here is a map of the Dominican Republic so you can follow along.

We arrived in Santiago last Friday night, spent the night at my parents house in La Vega, our bags didn’t make it but we made due with what we had and headed out to Bayahibe (just east of La Romana on the south East) for a weekend at an all-inclusive resort where we met the rest of the family.

Even though a bit cloudy that night the views and the beach were amazing. The water was so nice and warm even though outside it was cooling off a bit.

Sunday was the best day, weather was great and we got to enjoy the sun and the water with everyone.

Here are a couple of other cool shots Arves got to capture. He’s having a blast enjoying his camera and lenses.

More to come…

Dad in Town for Cap 10k

2010-04-18T16:19:00.000-07:00

Arves' dad came down to run the Cap 10k with him and while he was here we went down to McKinney Falls to get the legs ready for a run the next day. Bluebonnets were in full bloom and Stan had a lot of fun posing for pictures.

Arves also got to enjoy his new lenses and all the new ways he can capture the scenery.

Race Day

The day was misty which helped keep the runners cool. Arves has a goal of sub 50 mins and completely destroyed it! He did finished at 47:58!!! Absolutely amazing; this was 30 seconds per mile faster than what he had been training at. So proud of him.

Stan also did really well and it was fun to have him come down for this. There were about 20,000 runners/walkers which is one of the biggest races in Texas.

I got to see both of them as well as some of our other friends who were competing at mile 3. I was ready for them with oranges and lots of cheering. It was super fun to see everyone compete I had the perfect spot to wait for them and didn't miss anyone this time.

Casey, Alisa and Millie!

2010-04-18T15:31:00.000-07:00

I honestly never thought we would have Casey and Alisa ever come down to Texas, especially after they had Millie but they did and we had such a wonderful time!

Millie is the cutest and best well behaved baby ever. She's always happy to see you and has the cutest smile to show it. Just adorable.

Of course we did a lot of climbing so Casey could enjoy what Austin has to offer. The first weekend we went to Enchanted Rock, granite, and even though it ended up being slab climbing we got to enjoy a good hike and very nice weather.

While we were there we ran into our friend Gerardo and a couple of our other friends from work.

We went a couple of times to Reimers Ranch, limestone, which is one of our favorite climbing spots in Austin and I think Casey really liked it too. It has a really cool cave that the boys got to play at.

Here is Gerardo on Liposuction at the Sex Cave.

While Casey was here Arves got to try some of his super lenses on his camera and of course absolutely loved it to the point he had to get some of his own. Here are a couple of the shots he got. I have to admit he's getting really good

Rockport TX

2010-04-17T19:22:00.000-07:00

I know it's been almost a year but maybe one of these days we'll getter at posting.

A couple of weeks ago we went down to the coast with our friends Steven and Jessica and it was such a fun trip. Jessica's grandparents live down in Rockport and we got to spend a couple of days with them and enjoy a bit of the ocean.

Even though the water was too cold we got to skip rocks and feed the birds off the balcony.

It rained a bit and we got to sleep on the porch. Jess demonstrated how to stay warm in the hammock, and during a brief rainstorm we saw the coolest bird, a Great Blue Heron.

Texas Blue Bonnets were in full bloom and we got some great shots. This is such a pretty time of the year.

Bathroom Renovation

2009-08-17T18:28:00.000-07:00

Almost a year and not a single post. If it wasn’t for Facebook you might have thought we got lost in big old Texas.

The last couple of months really flew by; in April we went to Virgina to visit the family and run a ½ marathon with everyone. Then in May we went to the Dominican Republic to celebrate my birthday with the family; in June Arves had shoulder surgery and was in good enough shape to go on a hiking trip to the Rocky Mountain NP. You can see all these pictures in Facebook.

The weekend of Arves’ surgery we decided to go to Home Depot to “look” at tiles since we’ve been talking about tiling the bathroom upstairs. Before we knew it we had a design and ended up buying all the tile and most of the materials that day. It must have been the drugs from the surgery.

Here is a before picture of the shower. We hated the plastic walls.

Needless to say, Arves only had one arm and I ended up doing all the demolition work. I was really scared at the beginning but got a hang of it pretty quickly. To our surprise there were no walls behind the plastic wall so the project ended up being a bit more involved than we thought.

Our house was very dusty for about a month and overall it took us a month and a half to get most of the work done. After grouting we were so sick of it that we took a month and a half off. This weekend we just finished and it looks amazing!!

The before and after comparison:

Lost Maples

2008-11-11T19:57:00.000-08:00

This last week we went to Lost Maples, a state natural area northwest of San Antonio. This park is one of the few places where you can enjoy true fall colors in Texas.
The timing was absolutely perfect; all trees were in their prime time for full color.

The park itself is very small so we got to hike the whole thing within a day but it had a clear water river running through which made it very enjoyable.

Halloween

2008-11-07T19:10:00.000-08:00

My favorite thing about Halloween is handing out candy to the little kids. Our neighborhood is so full of little tinies and they all come looking for candy all night long. So fun!

After that was over we went to a friend's house to celebrate! Believe it or not, this Halloween was the very first time I actually dressed up! Some last minute brainstorming and I turned into a pretty butterfly with a tennis player by my side. Look at those sexy socks!

Texas Hidden Wonders

2008-10-27T18:40:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago we went for a drive to Inks Lake State Park and to our surprise it was so fun! We got to watch a beautiful sunset and enjoy the pretty scenery all to ourselves.

See if you can find Tica on this picture:

We even got to see a pretty cardinal, a fun treat we get to hear every morning.

After being in Texas for 3 years we finally decided it was time to branch out and enjoy more of the Texas wilderness. Stay tuned for more parks' posts to come.

No Basement in The Alamo

2008-09-22T13:41:00.000-07:00

This weekend found us in San Antonio at our Company picnic. We packed everyone from the image below (Jess, Steve, Me, Tica, Ricardo, Sylvia, & Gerardo) into the StolpeMobile at 9:30 in the morning and headed out.

At most companies this would have been a very boring affair, but not with NI. They rented out the entire Six Flags in San Antonio for employees and their friends/family only. The cost was $5 per employee and included the rides, lunch, and all the fountain drinks you could down in an 8 hour period.

To say it was awesome would be a gross understatement – especially when you take into account the longest line I waited in for any ride was 15 minutes and that was only because I insisted on riding in the very front. (I wanted to see the “super drop” on the Superman roller coaster from the front.) Here’s a picture of Tica with the "super drop" in the background.

It was really fun knowing pretty much everyone at the park, drinking way too much PowerAde and Diet Coke while riding 12 roller coasters in less than 6 hours! Though it's sad that I’ll never be able to go to another amusement park again because now I have experienced life without lines and can never go back to the drudgery of waiting.

Finally, no trip to San Antonio would be complete without stopping by The Alamo. We headed there after the park, found there to be no basement, and finished off the evening at a Mexican restaurant on the River Walk.

Just Say No to Hurricanes

2008-09-15T10:38:00.000-07:00

So, by now, I'll assume you've heard that hurricane Ike WAS going to hit Austin, but missed us completely. I guess that's OK considering the damage it caused to the other places it hit, but Tica and I were really looking forward to the rain. Plus, if it hit us, that would have been the second time Tica was hit by Ike since she met up with him while she was in the DR last week.

So since there was no hurricane to deal with I decided to work on the side yard a bit more. Last week I rented a bob cat and my friend Steve and I dug up about 40 200 - 300 pound boulders to level out the wash area next to the side of my house. Here's a photo of the work. I'm still planning on putting a little more top soil on the dirt area you see in the picture and planting some grass seed. Tica's still not convinced that the grass seed will work - even after seeing Mom's success with it.

After the yard work, we had some friends over to the house for some arepas - a very delicious Venezuelan dish that one of our friends from work made. They were amazing! I was going to include a photo of them, but they were eaten way too quickly for any photography.

We also took the time to visit the Oasis restaurant on Lake Travis. It's a pretty cool spot that sits up on some cliffs above the lake and provides some amazing views of the sunset. In fact, you could say that it is the #1 restaurant to view sunsets in Austin.

We still had the remenants of Ike hanging around, so we didn't get to see too much of the sunset, but it was still very pretty.

18th Annual Hot Sauce Festival in Austin

2008-08-24T18:47:00.000-07:00

Ausin is a city that is well known for it's eccentric nature. In fact, I'd say that the city motto or slogan could be summed up in a phrase that is commonly heard and even found on T-Shirts in Austin: "Keep Austin Weird"

One of the many ways Austin keeps itself weird is through it's many festivals and happenings. From Blues on the Green, a free blues concert every Wednesday in the summer, to the Austin Bat Festival, celebrating the nearly 1 million bats under the Congress Ave bridge.

Today Tica and I volunteered at the Austin Hot Sauce Festival, which includes hot sauce entries from local kitchens, companies, and individuals alike from around Texas. We worked the hot sauce tasting tent where there were hundreds of different types of salsa and sauce. For payment we got to taste all of the salsa without waiting in the sun in the 1.5 hour line. Plus we got some really snazzy T-Shirts to boot. The salsa was awesome, and the bands playing were all pretty cool, which made for a very cool (yet really hot) day.

Yosemite

2008-07-06T12:51:00.000-07:00

Sorry it’s been so long since our last post. It’s easy to get distracted with other things, like planning our next trip!
We just came back from a 6 day hiking trip in Yosemite National Park. We convinced some of our friends from Texas to come with us and ended up hiking a little more than 61 miles. The trip was so fun and everyone did really well even though it was their first time on a multi-day hiking trip.

Here is a brief recount of the trip:
The first day we visited the Mariposa Grove which has lots of Giant Sequoias. Arves’ favorite trees just in case you can’t tell from the picture.

This picture helps a bit with perspective on the massive size of these trees.

We also walked through Yosemite Valley and got to appreciate how crowded this area of the park is.

Now for the hike, we started and ended at Mono Meadows and had two major highlights: Red Peak Pass on day 2 and Half Dome on day 5.

Map overview

Day 1 – 14 miles through dusty and sandy trails
Still fresh at the starting point.

The first river crossing - Nice cold water on the feet

This was one of our longer days and we were all ready to be done. We camped at Upper Merced Pass Lake. Nothing like a nice ice cold bath after long day of hiking. This was our every day ritual.

Day 2 – Up to Red Peak Pass
Our climb started at 8900ft going up to Lower Ottoway Lake. Beautiful place for a rest

The climb went up to 11,180ft to Red Peak Pass with several glacier lakes along the way which made the climb all that more enjoyable.

The climb approaching the pass was very very steep.

We started to walk through some patches of snow but had no idea what was coming after the pass. Just like it was steep on the way up it was super steep on the way down and covered in snow. We had to go straight down!

The pass was beautiful and the frozen streams made it look even better. I loved it!

Camp #2 at Red Devil Lake.

Day 3 – Todo lo que sube tiene que caer
This day was mostly down with pretty green meadows and clear water lakes and streams

View from the camp that morning at Washburn Lake

Day 4 – Approaching the Valley
This was an easy day with amazing views of Yosemite Valley from the top of the mountains. We camped at the junction with the John Muir Trail and Clouds Rest Trail. It wasn’t our favorite campsite but it was still really pretty and gave us a great start for Half Dome.

Day 5 – Half Dome summit
Early rise to beat the crowds at the top of Half Dome. The views of the Dome were spectacular and we kept wondering if it was as steep as it looked. Little did we know…

Here is the easy part of the climb. The little hump to the right of the top.

Still smiling after the easy part was over

It took me some time to believe I could do it but here is the proof, We made it!!

We all made it up

This was no camera trick; it was straight up and down.

The last night’s feast.

Riding for Multiple Sclerosis

2008-03-30T17:24:00.000-07:00

One of Austin's most popular activities is road biking because of great weather, good roads, and beutiful hill country. This year we're getting ready to ride 150 miles for Multiple Sclerosis in the BP MS 150. We get to ride with 12,000 people from Houston to Austin to help raise money and awareness for Multiple Sclerosis.

We have a goal of raising $1,000.00 this year. If you would like to donate to the cause, you can do so by going to this site.

Here are some pictures from last year's ride.

The Long Awaited Germania Trip

2008-03-24T19:30:00.000-07:00

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Germany for work for a week, and took an extra day or two to check out what I’d been missing by not living there.

Here's a list of my observations: Lets do it by the numbers this time:

18 - Times I joked about US currency being worthless (1.5 dollars – 1 euro)

18 - Times that german people laughed at that joke.

1 –Total number of times people from the US laughed at said joke.

5 - Germans who yelled at me for some reason or another - usually for making them late for something. They seem obsessed with being on time!

13 – Germans who seemed suspicious when I told them I didn’t speak German

2.5 – Number of kilometers walked while dragging my suitcase around Garmisch looking for my hotel
1 – number of giant lego men I found to hold hands with while searching for my hotel

92 – number of minutes spent looking at the mountains from the patio of my hotel room. I really miss the mountains.

800 - average millisecond delay between housekeeping knocking on the door and housekeeping kicking the door in

2 - number of times this happened while I was in a towel

23 – Number of trains ridden

5 - Kick-butt EuroMullets(tm) spotted on the train

64 - Minutes I slept in incredibly awkward positions on said trains

200 – Number of wrinkles in my dress shirt for sales visits – No irons in German hotels ☹.

3 – Number of castles visited

27 - Number of David Hasselhoff jokes made by me and B-Mac - for some reason Germans actually like his music!

22 - Meals consumed that centered on the theme of "Pork, Dumpling and Gravy"

1 – Number of times I had pork chops garnished with bacon slices

0 – Number of times I regretted eating bacon covered pork chops

11 – Hours spent watching co-workers consume large amounts of German beer in bier gartens

6 – Average number of coworkers per day I mocked for having a “tough time” after said hours

5 – The cost in dollars for .2 liters of "Coke Lite" (that's 6.7 fluid ounces for you US types).

6 – Average number of coworkers per day that mocked me for paying 10x more for Coke than they paid for beer

2000 – Number of square miles of fields that would be perfect for playing croquet or frizbee

1 – Days spent skiing on the Austrian/German border

8 - Number of "Schlepp Lifts" (Translated "Hauling Lifts") at the Zugspitz Ski resort, which operated by slipping behind one's butt and schlepping you up the hill.

2 - Number of times I failed epically at the Schlep lift by falling off

300 – Average number of feet I was dragged up the mountain on my stomach after falling from the lift - I refused to let go!

0 – Number of trees at the ski resort

9 - Seconds that I rode on a pig statue for a picture before being asked by a stranger "Are you from Texas?" and begrudgingly admitting "yes". I think it was the triumphant "yee-haw" that gave me away!

80 – Percentage of buildings in Munich that were destroyed in the war

1 – Rebuilt and most amazing town hall – complete with clock and glockenspiel

11 – My shoe size

11 – Apparent size of the “devil’s foot print” in the Munich Frauenkirche– draw your own conclusions
9 - Times a member of our party was clipped, hit, or yelled at by a bicyclist. It’s tough when you are only used to dodging cars to avoid trains and bicycles – it’s like frogger on steroids.

6 - Average number of TV channels that turn into porn channels after midnight.

9 - Number of movies I watched on my laptop between the hours of midnight and 3:00 AM

19% - Sales Tax rate in Germany. No lie.

18 - Number of billboards spotted that wouldn't go over well in the US. Yes, that's a blue condom on a lemon.

38 - Hours spent traveling home from Munich. Thank you, Delta, for losing our pilots.

8 – Krystals (bite sized burgers) consumed in the Atlanta airport while waiting for pilots.

1 - bird hit by our airplane on the approach into Austin

9.5 - On a scale of 1 to Awesome, the rating of my trip in its entirety – Thanks Germany!

Marathon-athon

2008-02-29T20:52:00.000-08:00

What started as a fun summer project in 2004 with a book called "The non-runners marathon trainer" has now become part of my life and every year when it gets close to marathon time I feel like I have to train for it!

This February I finished my 3rd marathon! I looove running. This year though I felt like something was missing; I blame it on the fact that Arves was in Germany and I couldn't share it with him. The race was still very fun with a temperature to dream for throughout the whole thing.

Even though Arves has been "retired" from running after our first marathon together (Top of Utah 04) I've managed to convince him that running is good and we're now working for a 1/2 marathon this summer with a 7.5 mph goal. Stay tuned for more details once it gets closer.

To Sosua and Beyond . . .

2007-12-22T14:17:00.000-08:00

We arrived in the DR in good time and as usual Mechi had a nice meal prepared for us on the patio when we arrived. I think that's the think I like the most about coming here - the food that is 1. made for me 2. delicious and 3. healthy. Here's Tica and Mechi on the patio with lunch.

These past few days I've been in Sosua - a city with beautiful beaches and a little less than appealing ambiance otherwise. Let's just say that it's a little less than clean, and has "special" women for male tourists everywhere.

Anyway, we stayed at an apartment of a friend that was great except for the lack of running water - seems we have a lot of bad luck with the water in borrowed houses. But it was within walking distance from the beach, and as I'm fond of saying, "Free is always in the budget." We walked along a few beaches, but after some investigation we ended up at my favorite (and Rafelo's favorite to boot) beach and spent the day in complete tranquility. This image I like to call Happy Feet - because they and I spent many a fond hour there and were oh so happy in the sand.

Here's Tica and Rafelo at the "home base." Note the perfect amount of shade provided by the fig tree as well as the ubiquitous sponsorship of Brugal.

For lunch we had some fresh fish which they brought to us (once it was cooked of course)

with fried plantains and ice cold soda. Yes, Rafelo loved the fish too.

We only spent one day at Sosua; one perfect day. On the way home we passed by La Laguna Gri Gri, which provided me with my first mangrove experience. Very cool trees, and check out my dream house which we boated past . . .

The plan is to spend the next day or so in La Vega at Tica's parents' house (I'm hoping we'll take the motorcycles up to the mountain), then we're off to Tia Fanti's house for Christmas dinner and to visit my cute little niece who can scream like no child I have ever heard - it's really amazing.

Guess That Makes Me an "Expert"

2007-12-11T18:41:00.000-08:00

One of my articles was recently chosen to be the featured piece in an embedded design publication and is available for the world to either enjoy, or fall asleep to. It's pretty cool to see something you wrote on-line and it was kind-of weird to read through it again.

I once had a professor who told me that getting published on a topic makes you an expert - because now you're quotable. Not sure if I agree with the whole expert thing as I think that will take a life time, but if anybody wants to quote me . . . feel free ;)

You can find my article here if you're interested.

Who Needs Turkey?

2007-11-25T17:03:00.000-08:00

Tica and I decided to take a "quick" trip to Colorado this Thanksgiving to do some hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. We had considered inviting ourselves to visit friends and family, but airline tickets to California, Utah, and Virginia were just too expensive, so a road trip was all we had left. We really wanted to get some time in the mountains and Colorado sounded like just the place to do it. We checked the temperatures, consulted Google for hikes and driving directions and left early Wednesday evening to arrive on Thursday afternoon. It was a long drive, and we were able to get through all 16 CDs of the unabridged version of For Whom the Bell Tolls, and the 8 CDs of the first Harry Potter book.

When we got to Colorado, we found that it was WAY colder than we expected. Daytime temperatures were in the 20s and the nights were in the single digits and even dropped a little below 0 one night, but the winter scenery was breathtaking. Well it was either the scenery, or the fact that we were up at around 11,000 feet, but something was definitely taking my breath away! This was our first real winter backpacking experience and we learned a bit about what we'll need to take and do next time to be warmer and more comfortable. A quick shout out to Casey and Alisa for the boiling water in the nalgene to sleep with trick- it was AMAZING!! I owe you guys one.

Tica posted a few more pictures on facebook. Check em out:
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=760028189&k=Y5A3ZY5ZT5ZMZFAGVDXXP

It Just Dawned on Me . . . I live in TEXAS!!!

2007-11-25T16:18:00.001-08:00

Okay, I've finally realized that I can no longer live in denial. Texas is a strange place - and I live there. For instance, I've never heard of a "California Size" upgrade at a fast food restaurant where they give you a Styrofoam cup the size of a small dog, but I have "Texas Sized it" a time or two in the past few years without even blinking. I thought it strange, but hey, it's Texas - you expect some of that type of thing here. However, living in Austin has really sheltered and limited my Texas experience I'm realizing.

I would never have believed that just an hour from my home is a Texas town where camouflage is the new black; where 50 year old women at fast food restaurants will not only ask you if you'd like that "Texas Sized for only 85 cents more", but will share the most intimate details about the customer beside you; and where you can find "do-it-yer-self" waffles in the shape of the great state of Texas. Tica and I laughed so hard when we found the waffle maker above at a hotel we had stopped at. You don't find that type of thing much in Austin - I guess we've lived a sheltered Texas existence.

The experience and the waffles were delicious though!

Well, It's Up. . . Finally

2007-11-19T07:38:00.000-08:00

After 2 years of owning my TV, I finally did what I set out to do when I purchased it - I mounted it on my wall. The week before the wall mounting Tica and I painted the wall the savory color you see in the photo above. You should have seen the stern looks I received when I started drilling holes in the freshly painted wall - or perhaps it's better that you didn't.

Anyhow, It's up and it looks great! I still need to hide the cables to the back and we're in the process of finding a different "entertainment" stand, but all in all, I'm quite satisfied with my manly TV hanging abilities.

Quick Trip to Utah

2007-11-07T19:42:00.001-08:00

We just got back from an awesome trip to Utah. It's always nice to go home and visit the ones we love, but it's hard to come back for sure.

While there we did a really quick hike up to Lake Blanch. Samb was able to join us and it was awesome to have him back again. I really missed that guy while he was in the Nippon. Before the hike Katie (sister and Samb's ride back to Logan) failed to tell us that she needed to be in Logan to work at 7:00 until we had cell service at the top of the mountain at 5:00. The trip up took us about 2 hours, while the run back down took us less than 40 minutes - needless to say we were all pretty sore for the next couple of days from the run down.

While there we were also able to see the Fitch family and their newest addition - so very cute. Pictures just don't do the little guy justice, but here's one anyway . . .

Ninas Lindas in the DR

2007-11-07T19:36:00.001-08:00

Tica was recently able to make a trip to the Dominican Republic to surprise Mechi for her birthday. Mechi was so surprised that she couldn't stop screaming, and Rafelo was sure that the ghost of Tica was appearing to him. It was an awesome opportunity - especially since the company paid for the trip ;-). While she was there, Tica decided to cut her hair and it was so cute that Luli quickly followed suit. I have to say that these ladies look HOT HOT HOT with their new hair.

2007-07-23T18:05:00.001-07:00

Well, I started my first day in as a PME at NI and I have to say it's been good so far. My first (official) assignment is to update this demo to include new hardware (which of course I can't tell you about - super secret stuff). Anyhow, I got everything running today, and plan to make my additions tomorrow. I don't mind the extra time working on it because it's been raining like crazy down here lately and I don't get to play outside too much.