Xmas Eve 2006. My daughter-in-law, Sam, and my grandson, Asher. He's already getting tired of the paparazzi.

Xmas Eve 2006. The gathering of the family for dinner and the passing out of gifts to the families. We opted a long time ago to do our family get together on Christams Eve because there is always a bunch of visiting that goes on Christmas Day as well as the gift giving within the families themselves. We're just waiting for all the rest to show. A good time was had.

Xmas Eve 2006. Here's Christa with our new Grandson. Man is he going to be a monster, he's growing leaps and bounds. At 2 months he is holding his head up well and trying to talk.

Mid-Dec 2006. We fially have managed to get away for a little trip. Sadly it is without the RV as it is in the shop for repairs. However, as we already had our tickets for the Cowboys/Falcons football game, we were not going to let a broken RV interupt our game plans. So we packed up the jeep drove to Atlanta staying in the Omni Hotel adjoining the CNN center. I have to say, this was pretty neat. We were able to walk to the Georgia Dome for the game on game night. The rest of the time we were able to walk to a local MARTA station for all the other places we visited while in town. One of those other places was the Atlanta Museum of High Arts where a gift presentation of art was on loan from the Louvre in Paris. Scupltures, paintings and some never before displayed drawings by the masters. Unfortunatly, my small camera blitzed out me for this trip so all pics were from the big Olympus. Great shots but bulky to carry around. Bottom line very few shots of this trip, big, we weren't allowed to take pictures in the museum anyway. This shot was taken from the open air hallway toour room. The globe depicts the entrance to the tourist walk around the CNN newsroom. The bottom floor is a food court/gift shop area. We stayed on the 14th floor. Pretty nice hotel.

Entrance to the downtown Atlanta Centennial Park. Yea, the lights are a little shaky, but I didnt have anything to steady my shot with while shooting this picture. Christa and I took strolls through this park every night (except football night) while we were here. Beautiful with a lot of people taking advantage of the Christmas feeling presented by the well lit park. This park had received a major remodel for the '96 Olympics and the influence is everywhere in the park. This is a must see place if your in the area. One thing that encouraged us to get out for the walk was that the park is directly across the street from the hotel we stayed in. Great way to kill a couple hours in the evening.

Some of the Christmas lights in the park.

Another of the reflecting ponds in the Atlanta Centennial Park.

The Christmas tree in Centennial Park, downtown Atlanta.

A night shot of the entrance to the Georgia Aquarium. As has been stated earlier in my blogs, this is a really great place to explore. However, this trip was for the game and the Louvre Exhibit at the Museum of High Arts.

One little attraction that was brought into the park for the holiday season was this relocatable/tent type ice rink. People were really lined up for this venue and really enjoyed themselves. We had a good time watching everyone from the viewers gallery as well.

This ice rink was a major attraction during our 3 day stay in Atlanta. We really enjoyed walking the park at night, especially with all the Christmas lights up. This rink was fun even for us non-skating types, but the people inside were having a ball.

Reflecting ponds in the Centennial Park of Atlanta.

Mid-Dec 2006. Young folks hanging out by one of the many statuaries in Centennial Park, downntown Atlanta.

Here is the post-landscaping picture Uncle Ray and I accomplished. This is actually the foundation of an exrensive naturescaping effort that will begin with the new year. Also to be finished will be patios, walkways and drives.

Dec 2006. When we got back from Thanksgiving, it was time to get back to work. Here Uncle Ray (down from Colorado) helps me with some landscaping work on the front yard. My Unc has a better hand with the tractor and blade than I do. He's on his way down to his winter fishing grounds, but stops by for a month or so, and is always a welcome hand. Aunt BJ is a great cook and is also a welcome treat for the visit.

Nov 2006. Well, I'm back. Sorry about not having made an entry lately, but haven't been traveling much. The new house build took (takes) up a lot of time. We did however have a chance to breakaway for a trip to East Texas for Thanksgiving with the extended family. Here are all of this year's players (except for Aunt Nancy, I didn't realize that she wasn't in the shot until I processed the photo-sorry). Anyway great time had by all with lots of food (aarrgghhh-too much - almost).See y'all down the road.

On the 17th of October, 2006, I became a first time Grandpop at age 51. Here Samantha holds Asher up for me to get a picture. Yes, my camera is acting up and needs a little maintenance (hence the fuzzyness). At 8 lb 11 oz and 21.5", he is a good sized young fellow. He is a looker too and I'm not just saying that because I'm a bit biased in my appraisal.

Born on the 17th of October, 2006, Asher is the son of my son, Joe. A proud but tired new papa holds his boy up for all to see.

Here is Gramma Lisa with the newest addition to our families, Asher.

Grammy Christa with her first Grandchild, Asher. Yep, she's pretty happy.

Towards the end of last month, Christa and I had to make a return trip to Georgia to take care of some personal business. Enroute we caught the Dallas Cowboys vs New Orleans Saints pre-season football game in Shreeveport and cruised through Atlanta, Georgia. While in Atlanta we stopped in to see the newly opened Georgia Aquarium. Those who know me understand my attraction aquariums and I have made it a point to visit many in my travels around the country. Opened in early summer, the Georgia Aquarium had already seen it's 3 millionth visitor. This was a beautiful, first rate aquarium boasting to be the largest in the US and possibly the West. I'm not sure if there isn't something larger elsewhere, but this is certainly impressive. I recommend this as a must see. We did not travel via RV for this trip as speed was a factor, so we did the hotel thing. I can say that if I have my choices I will stay with the RV gig, I just did not get that much out of the hotel stay. Overpriced, older and not taken good care of was the general impression. And these were the big name guys, in one we even had mushrooms growing by the toilet. I mean, we didn't stay in Presidential Suites, but neither did we stay at "roach motels." Executive business I would call them. The end result was to put me off of hotels yet again. Anyway, that is not to say we did not have a good time, we did, and we got to see some old friends before the trip was over and we had to head home.

After paying for you tickets this is the hall leading into the interior. Pretty cool.

The main hall where a number of exhibit halls branch off, including a fairly nice food court with typical fare for the tourist. One exhibit that I do not show here is the Baluga Whale area. My pictures did not turn out well, so aren't shown.

The aquarium is complete with a kiddie hands on exploretorium. You get to touch various animals on display.

One of the side exhibits showing invertebrates and other oddities. The simulated whale skeleton on a sea floor was quite a touch.

The whole aquarium kind of revolves around the main tank, so you weave in and out of several exhibits before getting to the main viewing room. Here we walk through a glass tunnel with the tank and it's inhabitants gliding overhead and to the sides. We caught our first glimpses of the whale sharks here backlit by the sun.

You can get an idea of the size of the whale sharks in this blurry picture. The big fellow is quite a ways over in the tank, but compared to the humans in front you might be able to gain some insight into his size. The little golden fish schooling around him are 1-2 feet long.

This is a reef exhibit showing off the smaller, but more brilliant inhabitants, in the sea. I could sit here and watch it for hours. Complete with wave action, this was beauty to behold.

The main exhibit, this is the one everybody comes to see. They say that this tank is big enough to hold 6 full grown adult Whale Sharks at 25+ feet in length. There are numerous large schools of other fish, sharks, and rays.

This a picture of the large male Whale Shark measuring in at a little over 16 feet. He is huge. Sorry about the clarity of the shot, no flash, hand held, shooting through thick glass, yada yada.

...and this wraps up our visit to the Georgia Aquarium. A really fantastic visit. As many of you know I have a fancy for aquariums and find these to be a real treat. Following this visit we finished our business in Georgia and returned home to Seguin and the new house. We have since moved in and are decorating the thing.

Sorry about taking so long to get some posts out. We've been really busy as the end of construction nears and we have to start putting on the little finishing touches. Counter-tops, floor finishes, final plumbing, continueing electric install, and a whole bunch of little things are flying at us at a pretty good pace. The front door to our new home makes its first appearance. A spanish gothis design made by Masonite, the most popular feature is the "Speak-easy" door at the top. This is a very heavy door, just ask Alex. He had to hump it over from its storage place.

Mom's front door. Made of an unfinished walnut, this is a beautiful piece of work with leaded glass inset to the upper door.

Alex, Ralph, and Jose begin the process of cleaning up and preparing to move onto the next job. There is a lot of gear to be gathered, cleaned, and loaded after almost 6 months of building.

Sorry Ron, I really was trying for a better picture. Ron here is our cabinet installer and he has been doing a stellar job. Unfortunately, when these pictures were taken the A/C was yet to be hooked up and with temps in the 100 degree range outside the temp inside was slightly uncomfortable.

A crowded picture of some of Ron's work on the cabinets. Looking pretty good and considering he does this pretty much on his own he moves along at quite a clip. Kind of hard to see because the boxes and all are in the way, but you get the idea.

To fend off massive erosion of the hill side, I had to build a retaining wall. I used the left over rocks from the stone masons who created the exterior corner accents.

Putting the final stones onto the retaining wall. I had to carve the top back so that the slope wasn't so steep on this side. Erosion caught me off guard with some of the now distant past rains we encountered.

Alex getting things cleaned up. Soon we'll be moving appliances and furniture into the house.

Stone cutters for Artistic Counter-tops of San Antonio, prepare some of the green granite for our kithchen. With the temps at 100+ degrees, this stuff is hot to handle.

Working on one of our counter tops, craftsmaen from Artistic Counter-tops, mounts some of the green granite for our kitchen. Beautiful stuff, I do not believe I have the talent to show off this surface effectively. You'll just have to come by for a social.

A shot from the dive entrance of the build as it nears the final days of construction.

Taken a couple days ago, we are looking at the near finished build. Of note is the finished STO coat on the exterior, the copper-esque caps along the leading parapet walls, and doors and windows. There are still some electrical works going on inside, but furniture has started to arrive and the place is starting to look like a home inside instead of a building. The next couple of weeks will be the personalization of our new abode. Pictures of the home build will start becoming fewer and far in between at this point as we start getting into processes. Hopefully, we will be able to resume using the blog for our travels again.

3 Aug. The guys from Tri-County A/C have arrived and are preparing to get us cooled down. They especially liked the ability to drive onto the roof to place the condenser/compressor. Things are moving swiftly at this point, with finishing touches being applied all over the house. Ralph (our builer and crew from RC Smmot Construction, as well as the all the other folks involved, have really stepped up to the plate to make this one of a kind home come to life. The only major thing we're waiting on at this point are counter tops, another 2 weeks should see all that finished as well.

Shot from the gate, we can see in this phot that color coating is lacking only on the near retaining wall. The whole place is really coming together.

The final color coat is just about finished being applied. Really looking sharp, especially when viewed up close. Conrad, Alex, and Jose did a terrific job on this project.

Another view of the final color coat.

3 Aug. A view from the roof with the A/C condenser in place. Another sign of the nearness of completion. Can't wait. We still need to have power turned on, but that begins this Saturday.

29-31 July. If you are a reader of this site, you have already seen Jack's tile work in our bath . Now you finally get to see Jack in action. An elusive fellow, he tends to be a bit camera shy. However, when it comes to his work, there is no shyness about him. He gets busy and stays on the job till it's complete. Here he is working on the floor in my Mom's bath. His wife, Tanya, keeps a close eye for quality control.

Mom's kithen floor as designed and laid by Jack. Once the carpet is placed, this should be a pretty good looking room. As seems to be the case, Jack's work is excellent.