One Year After Hurricane Ike

The Big Picture reminded me with these amazingly cool before & after pictures (click on the pictures to see the after photo) that this time last year, I was riding the storm out in Salt Lake City, returning home to see Ike's wrath.

Luckily no hurricanes headed towards Houston this year. At least not yet.

Banff 2009

I took a long weekend trip up to Banff to get out of the Houston heat, it's been over 100° F (38° C) for the last week or so. I couldn't afford to stay at the Banff Springs Hotel but I went up for a cocktail on the back terrace, and next time I'm going to plunk down the $400/night to stay there. That's in Canadian dollars, so it's really not that expensive in real money. Here's the view off the back terrace:

Banff National Park is the most beautiful place I have ever been. I've been to Banff and Lake Louise in both the summer and winter, and both are fantastic.

See posts from my other trips:
Ridin' the Storm Out
Hurricane Rita update
Skiing 2007

2009 Indy 500

Tony and I went to the Indy 500 again this year, it's our third time (here's last year's race). We stayed in a sketchy hotel, but it's reasonably priced and it's close enough to walk to the race, about three miles.

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The weather was great, it was sunny in the morning, about 85 degrees, and slightly overcast during the race. No rain this year, we sat for hours in the rain in 2007. We changed seats this year, we were on the infield near the start/finish line, and we moved outside closer to turn 1, you can see the difference from the pictures from last year and this picture:

Check out the crowds, there are about 400,000 in attendance:

View From my Room at the Driskill

Looks very Austin.

Vegas Elvis

I was downloading my ski pictures (coming soon) from my trip to Mont Tremblant in Quebec, and I ran across some pictures I had taken in Las Vegas. I was experimenting with light and exposures, I didn't quite capture the glow of the underlit bottles, but I did get the Elvis posters in the background.



Satisfied, Leah?

Clear Evidence of Global Warming

I found this here.

Can you spot the 1,000 things wrong with this picture?

From one of my favorite sites, The Big Picture, sponsored by the Boston Globe newspaper, it highlights high-quality, amazing imagery - with a focus on current events. This image was from the series "Icy Days and Nights".

Texas Longhorns are Still Number 1

I went to the Texas Longhorns(1)-Missouri Tigers(11) game last weekend with my brother Aaron. We drove to Austin on Saturday afternoon with a buddy of his and tailgated until the game started at 7pm. I hadn't been back to Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium (formerly Memorial Statium) in at least 10 years, and there have been a lot of changes.

The university spent $150 million to reconfigure the north end zone, boosting capacity above 90,000 by adding suites and seats that will face a new scoreboard. And a big new scoreboard it is. They call it the Godzillatron (it's too big to be called a mere Jumbotron). The high-definition LED scoreboard is 134 feet wide and 55 feet high. Measuring diagonally, like they do for televisions, that's a 1,740-inch screen.

Texas dominated the Tigers from the first series, scoring 35 straight points in the first half and not allowing a point until Missouri kicked a field goal in the final second of the first half. It was great to be back at a college football game, singing and chanting and clapping and yelling; the noise is amazing.

The Longhorn band did a Tribute to Led Zepplin at the halftime show. Here they're playing Heartbreaker (Get it? Heart breaker?)

This is one of the first years that at the start of the season I thought Texas didn't have what it takes to go all the way. I hope I was wrong, and I won't doubt them that early again.

Salt Lake City

I've always liked Salt Lake City, probably because I'm from Houston (flat as a pancake) and it's surrounded by mountains. Here's the view from my hotel room window.

In-N-Out Burger

When I was in San Francisco I made it a point to have an In-N-Out Burger before I left. Now that's a good burger.

In San Francisco

Drew Bobblehead

Yeah, I probably watch The Office a little too much.

Indy 500

Tony and I went to the Indy 500 again this year, this was our second time. Tony's really into it because his family is from Indiana, but I didn't really know much about Indy racing. I've become a much bigger fan since we started going, it's really a great spectacle, with attendance estimated as high as 500,000, although no one knows exactly how many were there. Here's a picture Tony took from our seats. This is the front stretch going towards the start/finish line, you can see the pit crews watching the racing. And NASCAR fans can just suck it if they think their cars are fast.



Photo (c)2008 Tony "Squirrelly Curly" Lynch