Zilker Trail

Miro watching doves have breakfast on Christmas Morning

Barton Creek Greenbelt

Napoleon - We Love You and Miss You

Napoleon passed away this past Wednesday, the 16th. She was an amazing cat and loved member of our family. She was born in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia in 1998. Napoleon and Miro were found at the same time (Miro may be her mother). Here are some of the things we remember about her:

She was always good, she never misbehaved. She would even correct Miro if Miro did something she knew we wouldn't like. (e.g., Miro was scratching the couch one time and Napoleon ran up and slapped her on the butt.)

She would sweep crumbs of food under the food bowls to clean up after eating.

She had a very loud, deep healthy purr. The most unique I ever heard.

She used to cross her front paws, very lady like, sometimes when sitting on a chair.

She loved drinking water out of a glass.

When she was a kitten, she would stare at her reflection in the oven or mirror for 30 minutes or more. Sometimes she would stare so long that she would cry and we would have to move her somewhere else.

The reason she was named Napoleon is the vet first thought she was a boy, it wasn't until we brought her back to the vet that they discovered she was a girl.

When we had parakeets Napoleon would stand right under the cage and wait for a feather to drop, then she would jump up and eat it before it touched the ground. We think she was trying to eat them one feather at a time.

When Napoleon would sleep she would sometime lay partially on her back and curl up her front paws towards her face.

She was gentle and patient.

She was a very dignified being, anyone who ever met her could agree to that.

Art, food and hikes in the deep dark woods

Zoe and Paige - Cuties

The top photo is Zoe at 7 months, and the bottom is Paige at 8 months.

Lights and Fog

We went to the Zilker Park Trail of Lights tonight. Its much smaller this year, which I like. Its much more manageable with 2 kids. I also took a photo of steam fog over Barton Springs.

Austin at Night

Happy Hanukkah

Cold weather and walking trees

It was a chilly weekend, in the low 50s upper 40s. We went to the park for a bit. The last photo is of a guy dressed up in a realistic tree costume on the corner, he would hold still then say something in a deep voice when you walked by. He would walk around a bit too. It was really cool, even though it was scaring kids a little. I think he said to Zoe, "You remind me of a sprouting elm tree I once knew." Zoe whispered to me, "Ive never seen a talking tree before". I explained it to her it was a guy in a costume, then she thought it was pretty funny.

Funny things Zoe has said recently

I (Skip) was in the living room with Zoe and Paige. Paige was making a lot of noise while Zoe was trying to watch one of her videos. Zoe asked if I could put Paige in the other room and then come back and sit with her. I told I need to be in the same room with Paige. The she asked if I could put Paige in the exersaucer (a big toy Paige sits in a plays by herself, only last for about 10 minutes or so). I told Zoe Paige had already been in the exersaucer and probably wouldn't want to go back in. Then she asked, "Can you put her back inside Mommy?"

Recently Paige has started crawling, and almost every time she crawls straight for Zoe. The other day Zoe was drawing and Paige started crawling towards her with a big smile on her face.

Zoe-"Paige is scary".

Mommy "Why is Paige scary?"

Zoe-"Because she is moving around"

Zoe doesn't like to talk on the phone. Recently Nikki's mom asked to talked to Zoe, Zoe got on the phone and said rather quickly, "Hello, Mommy has a cold sore..goodbye" and handed the phone back to Nikki.

Me: Zoe , would you like some soup?

Zoe: No, I'm too happy to eat soup.

Sophie in the Christmas Tree

Early Saturday morning at the park

In good company

Being a vegetarian is not new. A lot of people in history practiced vegetarianism at one time or another in their lives. Some just for a while, some stayed with it their whole lives.

In addition to some of our good friends who are veggies, like Angie and James, Catherine-Eugene and family, Kara-Eliot and family, Giana-Todd and family, Annalisa and family, Bobby and family (who is vegan), and Im sure Ive missed a few...here is just some of the famous people who at one time or another were vegetarians (for a longer list go here):

Leonardo da Vinci, artist and inventor

Thomas Edison, inventor

Albert Einstein, physicist

Ben Franklin, American statesman, philosopher and scientist

Mahatma Gandhi, Indian independence leader

Jerry Garcia, musician, member of Grateful Dead

Bob Marley, musician

Sir Isaac Newton, physicist

Plato, philosopher

Pythagoras, Greek philosopher

Socrates, Greek philosopher

Dr. Spock, author and pediatrician

Henry David Thoreau, writer

Leo Tolstoy, author

Vincent Van Gogh, painter

Voltaire, French writer

HG Wells, author

Steve Jobs - CEO of Apple

John Coltrane - jazz musician

Paul McCartney of The Beatles

Saint Francis of Assisi - patron saint of animals

and these are possible based on quotes about vegetarianism:

Charles Darwin, author and scientist

Mark Twain - author

Abraham Lincoln - US president

Vegetarian

Today is our 10 years anniversary of being a vegetarian. The last time I ate any animal was at my mom's house on Thanksgiving in 1999. I stopped cold turkey (I know, bad joke) the day after that.

I remember getting lots of questions such as, "Dont you miss eating meat?" "You don't even eat fish?" and so on (the answer to both of those is no by the way). I would always love to answer any questions anyone had but have always made it a point not to be a missionary about it. The easiest answer I could give would simply be, "I don't eat anything you have to kill".

I can say it was a great decision for Nikki and I. I feel healthier and cleaner inside than I ever did eating meat. Now we have 2 girls who we are raising as vegetarians and this gives them extra thought to what they are eating, teaching them compassion and empathy in the process.

So happy anniversary and congratulations to Nikki and myself, 10 years meat free!

Thanksgiving

Today we had a wonderful thanksgiving feast prepared by Nikki. It included Quorn Veg-Turkey Roast with cranberry-blueberry topping, broccoli, pears and raisins, mashed yams with cinnamon, pecan and pumpkin pies. Thank you Nikki!

Afterwards we went to Zilker and climbed around on what we call "Zoe's boulder", because she is the one who found it.

Photos from Zilker Park

Photos of Fall

The Capitol Building

Zoe and I visited the Capitol Building here in Austin the other day. Zoe likes all the statues inside. On the way out we collected acorns in the grass for a while.