..please give him your best wishes this weekend. He’s a gifted singer and he certainly doesn’t need to make Texas regional choir every year to prove that… but he’s been working hard and we really hope he gets it. When he’s a Senior I can only image that he’ll have a much easier time but it’s a challenge for him right now as a Sophomore when you’re in there from a small rural choir program against Seniors from all those huge San Antonio High Schools. And in the hardest and most competitive of all the male categories, bass one. But then again, he’s brought it home for New Braunfels many times before… everyone in the music program here knows he’s been one of the stars of their show. If there was any fairness the Canyon High School cheerleaders would tag along with him.

We have a little recording studio in the Cool Room and about an hour ago I had Taylor record the most troublesome of his songs along with the CD rehearsal track. He was wearing headphones for the first time - it tripped him up a little but I have a sneakin’ feeling that it won’t be the last time he’s in a studio with headphones on. Here’s the one take we did. He was hustling to get out to the first half of a friend’s Friday night party so he didn’t record the other three but he agreed to properly record all 4 of his songs after the competition next week so that I can save them.

It’s his 16th birthday month, so we’re particularly all about Taylor right now.

seems like it’d be a winner in some “photos of accordions” contest somewhere. Click on it to enlarge.

This is cool - I stumbled on it while doing a search for Dolan Falls. If you enter any word in the WordPress search window there in our left sidebar, it will bring up a page with all the posts containing that word. I think we all knew that. BUT the URL that you then see at the top of the page (in your browser’s nav window) can be used like a permalink to all those results. Just cut and paste it anywhere - a comment, an email, whatever and it will show up as a live link and it will re-perform the search as a new page. Check it out, I’ll do searches from just stream of consciousness words that come to mind and then turn the URL that each search creates into a link. Click on the word and see what happens. At the bottom of the page, you can go back or forward in time using “previous” or “next”. Nobody anymore starts from now and looks, post by post, all the way back to the beginning because we have < 3,000 entries. Size alone was one reason for all the search features. BUT in a search on one topic, you can get the feeling of how time passed by glancing through a couple of pages of chronological results back two years, using the "previous entries" button below the last post on each page. Stop and try some old links in the posts, most that I tested still work.

Guitar * Molly * Birthday * Grace * Thanksgiving * Trip * Stuff *

Almost any word brings something up. Try some searches of words that come to mind. If you post the whole URL into a comment under this post, it’ll become a live link. You can also cut and paste any URL into the Live Shoutbox chat thing and it becomes a live link automaticly.

this crazy idea of telling a story in 90 seconds or less. Lots of great amateur films in there under the “short list” links.

Hopefully we’ll soon see this.

I looked up info on the net and found out that it’s not easy to trap a live fox. They recommend setting food near the trap then closer and closer then finally inside. But since my fox is injured I figured he might be really hungry and I might not have those extra days. So I tried putting the food inside the trap the first night. Also everything has been well sprayed with fox urine.
Yum!
Glenn advises that foxes are “cusinarts with fur” and I should be real careful.
Thanks.

My sister Becky and husband Tom Kidwell live in Sacramento. Thier son Austin is a freshman in high school this year. Daughter Paula is a senior. Here’s pictures from the first day of school:

Paula is a great gymnist and competes in a specialized field called acro. She and Becky are flying to Montreal this weekend to check out the Ecole National de Cirque and McGill University. Here is a photo from her party where everyone wore Cirque costumes:

Can you believe Becky MADE those outfits?
That’s boyfriend Cameron with Paula there, and here again on a trip to Mammoth:

The Lullabub is an innovative product that will gently rock a cot automatically & unassisted, in a harmonic rhythm to naturally soothe & settle babies to sleep. Helping the parent attend to other duties or catch up on some much needed and well deserved REST.

One thing I like about the Wordpress version of our blog is that it’s so easy to search for things and look at posts from the past. About a year ago I posted something about Ikea maybe coming to our area. I forgot to follow up with the news that I sent them an email asking if they had made a decision. Here’s their reply from July of this year:

“Thank you for your interest in IKEA. We are always happy to hear from our customers. IKEA plans to open 5 new stores a year for 10 years as part of an aggressive expansion plan of 50 new stores. We will initially focus on serving our existing markets, and then move into new markets

[more...]

We have and I think a lot of the other readers of this blog have crossed the line into the “reading glasses” twilight zone. THIS VERY MINUTE, hold down the “ctrl” key that’s right under your “shift” key and then pull the scroll wheel on your mouse towards you. Roll the scroll wheel back and forth until you get a text size that you like. Makes reading so much more pleasant.

Cool, huh?

Grace and I will be participating in the 2005 Alzheimer’s Memory Walk at Retama Park on October 8. This is one of the most important events that the Alzheimer’s Association holds each year to promote awareness of the disease as well as raise funds for research and effective treatment. Treatment of this disease has come a long way in the last 10 years and this event has helped make that possible. If you are interested in making a donation you can go to this site , click “Sponsor Participant” and enter my name - Deirdre Pattillo - to get to the donation site that I have dedicated to my father, Roy Pattillo. Or you can make a general donation to the memory walk as well.

Wish us some great weather for this event on October 8!

To talk to Brian Wilson.
Donate $100 to hurricane relief and he will call you on the phone - personally - and you can ask him any question you want or just say hello. Then he will match the donation with one of his own.
Can you believe it?

NASA administrator says space shuttle was a mistake: now aims to send astronauts back to the moon in 2018 in a spacecraft that would look like the Apollo capsule

We’ll probably get our first wave of Monarch Butterflies riding on the north winds.

Be sure to look for them.

from our cousin Kevin Smith. Several of the Smiths are planning to come to the party.

This gives you a hand drawn artsy idea of where it’s at. Texas Highway 306 is a pretty hill country drive and would be quicker but River Rd. is a classic - if you’d never driven that famous stretch, you should. Might put you in the River Road mood which is the theme.

Sounds like we’ll be auctioning off one of Evan kidneys at the party so he can buy the PSP copy of the movie Sin City. He’s hell bent. He heard that a kidney is worth $20,000 but he admitted to his brother that he’s willing to take $20. He tried to sell it to me saying that it would look good in a jar next to the rattlesnake. I love being Evan’s dad. I’m becoming more and more certain that we’re not entirely prepared for it. But it’s our destiny.

need a kidney? I need lots of mula for my PSP.

Kiss plans to be thier own tribute band.
Kind of.
Kiss News on Yahoo! Music
They’ll hire all new band members to wear thier makeup and play thier songs and tour under thier name.
Why not?

The Like!

Listen to Who Stole My Radio!

I got a job!
Yep, I’m gonna drag my lazy butt to work at the
Home Depot Supply call center here in New Braunfels starting Friday, October 7th.
Wish me luck!

Please save this date. We’re having a big 16th birthday party for Taylor on Sunday, October 16th at a really nice party house we’ve rented on the Guadalupe at the top of River Rd. near Canyon Lake. We’ll post a map and other info soon. It’s very easy to get to. Here’s a photo of the party house - it overlooks the river and faces the cliffs you see in the top photo - click on them to make them full screen. It’s a lot like Guadalupe River State Park, huge shady trees and a very gorgeous stretch of river. We have it from 10 am to 10 pm so everyone is welcome to come make a day out of it. The actual party will start at 2:00 with a bar-b-que. The party house is air conditioned and has a kitchen - we think everybody will be very comfortable no matter what the weather is. Please start planning to come. We’re hoping to make this one of our biggest get togethers of the year.

Now, this is my favorite art! Casey and Jimmie made this about what? - 17 years ago?

Remember Paul Lynde on Hollywood Squares?

Peter Marshall: What should you do if you’re going 55 miles per hour and your tires suddenly blow out?
Paul Lynde: Honk if you believe in Jesus.

We’re not big TV people but this is a great night for the stupid tube. Jim Lauderdale is the host, Buddy Miller is leading the house band and it’s just AWESOME. It’s on GAC channel 167 if you have Dish Network. Some other channel if you have cable. It’s going to be rebroadcast at midnight.