Ruben and I were so lazy during the final week of 2011. We spent most of it curled up on the couch with the dogs, watching episodes of ‘Community’ on Hulu. If you haven’t seen that show, watch it. My friend Catherine got us hooked on it. Anyway, we attended one final holiday event at Mike and Tom’s place along with Brian and Chris. It was a nice, relaxing evening spent with friends. A few days later, Ruben and I drove down to Houston to count down the final seconds of 2011 with Liz, Vann, Elsa, and Travis. Let’s hope 2012 is a much better year for us all.
As soon as the last day of final exams came to an end, Aggieland turned into a ghost town (it happens every year). It’s nice at first, but it doesn’t take me long to miss the students. During this little quiet time, Ruben and I did much of nothing. This in-between-time was pleasantly interrupted by a visit from an old friend. Brian (TAMU graduate and mutual friend with Glenn) was back in town interviewing for a job on campus. He came by the house a couple of times to cook and celebrate Christmas with Glenn, Ruben, and myself.
Saturday afternoon Elsa, Travis, Liz and Vann drove up from Houston. Together the six of us had an informal Christmas celebration along with a few Dance Central dance-offs via the Xbox Kinect. Later that evening we headed South of College Station to enjoy the sights and sounds of Santa’s Wonderland. This local holiday-attraction features lots of live-music, food, and a hayride through it’s Christmas light display.
After Esteban and Kelly’s party, Ruben and I drove to a little Karaoke place called Ginji to meet Elsa, Travis, Liz and Vann for a few drinks, laughs…and some poor but valiant
attempts at singing. We’ll never appear on “The Next American Idol”, but we definitely had fun and enjoyed some good Japanese cuisine.
October 30, 2011 Ruben and I met Liz, Vann, Elsa, and Travis at the 37th annual Texas Renaissance Festival. The weather was perfect and there were plenty of costumed patrons for me to photograph. The 53-acre complex near Plantersville is the largest Renaissance theme park in the nation. We spent most of our day admiring [...]
October 22, 2011 It starts to feel like fall in Texas when the A/C doesn’t have to run all night long and being outside during the day is tolerable. From a visual standpoint, it starts to look like fall when I see the Aggie Habitat for Humanity Pumpkin Patch suddenly appear on the grounds of [...]
Last year, to celebrate Elsa’s birthday, we all jumped out of an airplane. This year, we did something a little more grounded. Sunday afternoon, Ruben and I drove to Houston to meet Elsa, Travis, Vann and Liz to celebrate Elsa’s birthday at a place called Pinot’s Palette. This establishment is an informal painting-studio for beginners. Drinking wine (BYOB) is strongly encouraged. We were told it helps one paint better…and who were we to argue with our instructor. We had a fun time and plenty of laughs.
This fall marked my third season of taking panoramic photographs of home games at Kyle Field. It’s been a lot of fun. Posting these zoomable gigapixel images has generated tens of thousands of Internet hits and it’s been good PR for our department. This year, I wanted to take things one step further by introducing Facebook tagging to the images. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one to have this idea.
