Bat Cruise!

Tina and I took the Austin Bat Cruise this week and I forgot to bring my camera. So I'm posting a picture of Tina's dog, Coco. She looks like a bat. Just picture 500,000 of her flying out from under a bridge every evening in the summer. Sometimes I forget about some of the neat stuff this town has to offer. I need to get out more.

This week was my good friend James' birthday, it was also his kids first birthday.

Here's the gang at the pool. This is at the gym after jiu jitsu class, there are three waterslides there for kids and

tattoo artists.

The French Connection

My buddy Patrick from France who I havent seen in almost a decade came to visit a few days ago. I use to go hang out with him for a few weeks every year in Paris. We used to be total party animals and would drive to Amsterdam on weekends. Now we're both kind of old and relaxed... His wife Magalie, who I just met, is four months pregnant(!) and very cool too.

Here we are at Perry's getting ready to eat some local cuisine. I dont know whats up with the camera.

Magali digging into some steak.

The next day we took them to one of our favorite swimming holes, Hamilton Pool. Its really beautiful there and the water is much cooler than the 100˚ air. I always bring people here when they visit, its one of my favorite places in Texas.









After our swim we went downtown for some sightseeing which I forgot to document on film. All in all it was a fun time though. I hope we dont have to wait another 10 years before we see them again. Actually I think we'll be visiting them next September for Patrick's 40th birthday party, I hate to fly but Tina's never been to Europe and I think it would be an adventure for us both.

Dinner and a Movie

Last night we went to Tina's favorite restaurant, Korea Garden. It's pretty good if you're into Korean food...

We didn't have sushi but I thought the new sushi conveyor was photo worthy. You might notice the walls are leaning, that's because the building is a huge semi-cylinder, like an old plane hangar.

After dinner we rolled down to the Alamo Drafthouse to see the newish Harry Potter movie. I'm not really into Harry Potter, but I AM really into milkshakes, and they're pretty good at the Alamo.

This is a shirt they were selling in the lobby of the theater. Yeah, it's Hulk Hogan kicking down the twin towers.

Martial Arts Mayhem! and the desert at 80mph

My Iaido dojo in Austin had exams this weekend. The head of our school and a high ranking teacher came all the way from Japan to administer the tests. Since their are a few dojos in the southwest, we all met in one place: El Paso, Texas (8 hours drive from Austin). El Paso is a bordertown adjacent to Juarez, Mexico. It's really beautiful there, surrounded by mountains and desert looking scrub. I wish we could've crossed into Juarez, but due to the drug war and recent kidnappings it seemed like a dumb idea.

Here's me, either starting or finishing my exam. I was so nervous it's all kind of a blur.

These are the Austin guys. We all did very well on our exams.

Alex and Matt practicing

Dinner after testing. We're all pretty beat...

Everything green had spikes.

Seriously.....

Rest stop, greatest hits cover.

More spikes

and rocks...

This mural was at one of our lunch stops on the road, it was a place in Van Horn Texas. My friend Alex wanted me to write that this was the worst Mexican restaurant ever.- and that the mural might depict Jesus climbing the mountains shooting laserbeams from his hands trying to destroy the place.

On our return trip I saw this family of Javelina hanging out on an access road, so cool. I also saw a roadrunner relaxing on a fence but the car was too fast to get a pic.


I only took this pic because it's the second time Luar's eaten McDonalds in like ten years, the first time was the night before. I plan on blackmailing him with this.

The Springs

Tina and I went to Krause springs with Karl and Shannon and our new friend Julian, it was my first time there. Awesome. T wasn't feeling too good so we had to cut it short, but hopefully we'll go again soon, when the kids are in school..

Tina didn't bring a floatation device...

Taking in the scenery..

aah cypress, the cedar tree's non-lethal cousin

At first I thought Karl was holding some kid under the waterfall, but that's just some bald guy.

This guy was hanging around outside the parking lot.