el.

pogo!, originally uploaded by el_en_houston.

We got a new family member! More to come

1940 terminal Museum, originally uploaded by el_en_houston.

After being stuck at work all morning, completely missing our volunteer work, and missing out on the GTRs at Wings’nWheels, I was in a pretty foul mood.

Then a great thing happened, a volunteer named Rich gave me the backstage tour! It was awesome! I got to go all the way up to the control tower, I met some ‘spotters’ (people who like to photograph planes) Joe and Michael, and had a blast. I learned a few things about planes too!

On the way home, I got pulled over by one of our fine HPD and got 3 citations.

dammit.

practice makes perfect, originally uploaded by el_en_houston.

I wonder.

what should I do with this blog? more family stuff? more tech stuff? more photo stuff? Random ranting about the government?

What do I want coming out of my soundboard?

wasabi silhouette, originally uploaded by el_en_houston.

The lovely wife and had just returned from HOT YOGA, and were relaxing on the couch. Wasabi had perched himself on the coffee table between us and the window facing the street. The contrast and his lazy demeanor was a reflection of how I felt at the moment. Do cats have a sixth sense?

Nash Rambler, originally uploaded by el_en_houston.

….
and yes, I still want an old car.

i’ve got a problem.

Please keep the Williams family in your thoughts and prayers as they mourn the loss of a beloved father, grandfather and husband.

In loving memory

Dr. James Earl Williams
1930 – 2009

we just got our wedding photos in, the photographer, Mary Henry-Zeek, did a great job.
click on the photo for the full gallery.

AGHHHHH!

here are the recipes for the holiday cookies the wife and I made.

the fun sugar cookies:

• 1 bag of HEB sugar cookie mix. (follow the directions) * i know this isn’t technically a recipe, but the point of all this is the fun of painting cookies!

the paint, per batch, make this while the cookies cool, as it dries hard quickly.

• 1 egg white
• 1 tbs of lemon juice
• 167-174g of confectioner’s sugar
• wilton’s cake frosting coloring

1. whisk the egg whites and lemon juice together.
2. sift all the confectioner’s sugar and work it into your egg mix.
3. check consistency, it should be like a velvet.
4. separate out small batches for each color, and work in the color with a fork. Add more than it says on the box for colors that pop, use a tiny bit for subtle hues.
5. apply to the cooled cookies. I like to put paper towels under the cookie cooling racks and paint them there.
6. TIPS
   
   • get creative and have some fun. I use a ketchup bottle from the restaurant supply store (less than 1$) to apply dots and lines etc.
   • let the base coat dry hard if you want to have layers
   • use more sugar in your paint mix to get a real stiff line. I do this for the white batch i use for lines
   • make some coffee. nothing goes better with a sugar coma than caffeine

I got a hario grinder from Catalina Coffee the other day, and have been playing with it for a few hectic holidazed days. If you are not familiar with the Hario grinder, check out Jeremey’s review of the fiesty little hand toy. One minor issue is that it is a hand grinder, and for even 30g of coffee, it takes a bit of twisting.

My wonderful wife replaced my broken cordless drill for christmas.

Christmas gift + Hario == express grind !

i went to a meetup and had some great conversations about tech, life, and humanity. A particular conversation stuck a chord with me. It was about giving and a mini food drive done via twitter. The person who started this was talking about all they had been through, (and it is A LOT) and it struck me that giving love is one of the best ways to releive pain. when you give love, and little pain is carried away with it, and hopefully the world is a bit better.