Gillian's Vacation in Oz

I picked Gillian up at the Austin airport Saturday for her December visit. She'd just returned from her visit with David and Amy and told me I could post some of her pictures from the trip. So, the following pictures were taken by either Gillian, David, or Amy. I'll offer brief, incisive comments (as usual) for your edification.

The cockatoo above  dropped by Dave and Amy's apartment for a snack. Such visits are not unusual.

Dave and Gillian took off for a drive up the coast where Gillian took the ferry across the mouth of the Hawkesbury River from Palm Beach, past Barrenjoey Head and Lion Island to Umina Beach to visit with her great aunt Christine and great uncle Bob. Then Dave returned the next day to pick her up at the ferry. These pictures were taken at at the Marine Park overlook on the way back to Manly.

Several years ago, when Gillian graduated from high school and Sally took her to Japan, Sally bought Dave a pair of shakuhachi (traditional Japanese bamboo flutes). He was apparently pleased; Gillian says he "takes it everywhere". That includes to the Japanese gardens in Wellington, where Dave and Gillian went to visit their grandmother. Here, Dave is charming the koi a la the Pied Piper.

The pictures of the Sydney Opera House and the Harbor Bridge were taken at the end of Gillian's trip when Gillian, Dave, and Amy spent the day wandering about the The Rocks and Sydney Cove areas of the city.

These last two are back at the apartment in Manly that last day before Gillian flew home. Above, Amy got this shot of Dave and Gillian on the balcony near sunset. Below, they were sharing bread and honey with another avian visitor - this one a Rainbow Lorikeet. They don't get much brighter than this. . .

Blender Techniques

I'm sure you'll all be pleased to hear that I've decided to declare victory over my recent computer ills.

Mission Accomplished!

As it turned out, the 40 GB slave HD on the old computer is the one that failed - even though the error message I got when this all started told me the master HD was the culprit. When I installed the slave drive in the enclosure and fired it up, all I got for my trouble was the same horrible sound I heard last Thursday - reminded me of trying to crank car that ain't gonna start anyway, and hearing metal on metal that sets your teeth on edge.

So I made a list of everything I could remember that was on that drive and checked to see what was and what was not backed up. As far as I can tell, I'm missing my folder of 2008 pictures, some of which have been duplicated in other folders. For some reason, all the pictures I took on my tour of the Southwest in the Spring of 2008, were duplicated in another folder on the other drive. Good karma, man. I did lose a lot of the pics from my trip to Kim's and Robert's ranch in west Texas - looks like I'm going to have to go out and shoot all those longhorns again, but someone has to do it.

*****

Ever been really thirsty? I'm not quite sure exactly what Lisa's fixing here. We usually like to save Richard's SuperBlender for important jobs - like emergency daiquiris or Nucular 'Ritas - but this . . . I just don't know, although her technique is good.

Sometimes, a difference of opinion over technique can cause some fireworks, but it seldom seems to take much effort for Maureen to make Richard see things her way. It's probably her dimples. One thing's for sure - despite the technique, at the end of the day all the daiquiris and margaritas will be gone.

Now Karen, after her trip with Richard to China for Steve's and Tanya's wedding, came back with an oriental technique called "the Whining Crane", which appears to be derived from one or more of the martial arts. It doesn't make the daiquiris or 'ritas taste any better, but it tends to scare off hangers-on who may be inclined to diss her technique.

But Stan is truly "the Man". No muss, no fuss. His magaritas rock! and he stays on task, delivering the product on time and on budget - while calmly refuting any arguments that may arise over his San Antonio Technique. (He used to have a "Tyler Technique", but Tyler's in a dry county so, for the street creds, he had to change it to San Antonio Technique.)

Now I'm thirsty.

Hook 'Em

Well, This has been a fine weekend. I've been trying to work out a recovery plan for my computer ills and, to show you how vexed I was about it, I passed up a chance to go down to Ellen's in San Antonio with Stephen to watch football. First of all, I found a small program on the 'Net that fixed my file access problems. Then, I found a line I'd saved a few years ago in my computer notes that suggested a way to install Picture Publisher 10 on Windows 7 - and it worked like a charm! Then I found upgrades for my photo management program and my voice recognition software. So I've got my files and my programs now, and life is good.

While I was doing all that, I was sneaking peeks at the Conference USA Championship game as the East Carolina University Pirates beat up on the Houston Cougars. One of the signs in the stands brandished by a Pirates fan had an arrow pointing at his friend standing next to him. It said:

"The only Cougar I like is his mom!"

Then came the football highlight of the day - which almost matched my computer maintenance successes. That would be watching 'Bama dismantle Florida in the SEC Championship game. Of course, watching that game I kept hearing the whispered warning, "Be careful what you wish for." Alabama was awesome.

And finally, there was the Big XII Championship in the Cowboys new stadium in Arlington - known variously as "Jerry's Place", "The House that Jerry Built", or - Stephen's favorite - "The Boar's Nest" (or is that "The Bore's Nest"?) The Longhorns didn't impress anyone - till possibly the last minute and a half. When the clock hit 00:00 (the second time) Hunter Lawrence had kicked a last second field goal and Texas won - by a point.

HOOK 'EM

*****

If there are any sailors out there, they should recognize the signal flags at the top of the post as 

WHISKEY PAPA.