Galerie: It's a geek thing

While this isn't a blog about technology, I have to share this somewhere. You might have noticed a change in the photo galleries on the last couple of entries. I had my iMac upgraded to Tiger and Photoshop reinstalled, and I lost my hack of the Photoshop Web Gallery template in the process. That was too laborious anyway, so I went searching for some photo gallery software to work with iPhoto and found Galerie.

You select the album or photos you want in iPhoto and then launch Galerie, set a template and poof -- gallery made. OK, that's pretty cool, but next it also has an ftp program in it to upload the folder of files to your web site.

So, once set the first time, future galleries are a snap. The process from selecting the photos I want to use in iPhoto to publish is about three steps.

Not bad results either: Seaworld | Games of Texas.

Witte Museum

Another adventure on our trip to San Antonio was the Witte Museum.

Sean really liked the mummy and other Egyptian artifacts. And the bugs from the river. And the instruments. I think Brian liked the dramas by the cowboy and vaquero, and the wacko water man puppet show.

They also had a nice exhibit on the Edwards aquifer and saving water in general. And dresses from Fiesta.

We spend a good four hours there and could've spent more.

I also snuck in a couple of shots from the pool at the Crocket Hotel, where we stayed while we were in San Antonio.

Trip to Seaworld San Antonio

During our vacation last week we visited Seaworld San Antonio where we had an absolute ball.

We spent two days there ... the first we spent mostly taking in shows and seeing the exhibits. The sea lion show was a ruckus and we really enjoyed the dolphins and Beluga whales. We caught the Shamu show in the evening, which was nice for us but didn't make very good photos, sorry.

My favorite animal? The Rockhopper penguin.

The second day (with a day in between at the Witte, which I'll write about later) we spend mostly on rides and at the water park. It was really only half a day because we had to come back to Austin.

Like the photo? Compare it with one we took in 2001.

The Games of Texas

With Brian's 2nd place win on the 4x100 Freestyle Relay in the City Championship, he was eligible to go to the Games of Texas in Waco. He was also an alternate in the 25-yard butterfly, so he got to swim that as well.

We left Friday afternoon for a quick trip to Waco where we attended the Opening Ceremonies. The athletes paraded into the stadium, then listened to a couple of speakers and a drum and bugle corp, then watched as the Athletes of the Year lighted the cauldron, followed by a fireworks ceremony.

The swimming events were held at the Waco water park west of town near Lake Waco (I think.) Brian gave it his all on butterfly (video to come I hope) and he met the same time he swam at the City meet. Teo also raced butterfly, and he is also on the freestyle relay team with Max and Sam.

The relay team took 14th and the four of them were just a hoot. Thanks to Kyle and John for coaching them the last couple of weeks.

Swimming on the Dick Nichols Devil Rays

Sean and Brian both swam on the Dick Nichols Devil Rays this year, a City of Austin recreation league. They had four meets during the summer, plus the city championships at the University of Texas. They each swam three events at each meet.

Both boys really made a lot of progress swimming. Brian took on a new distance, the 50-yrd freestyle, and Sean raced in every stroke at some point. Brian's freestyle relay got second place at the city championship and is going to the Games of Texas this coming weekend. He will also swim 25-yard butterfly as an alternate.

Sean was awesome for his first summer on a team. He was excited every day about going to practice and the meets and he gave his best effort each time. We are so proud of him.

The program was Dick Nichols was great. We really loved the coaches and volunteers that make that team possible. It is by far the most popular team in the league ... they had more than 200 swimmers this year. They split it into two teams and they each were still the biggest in the league.

Video from Extreme Room Makeover

I finally fixed my computer so I could edit the video of Sean's Extreme Makeover, Room Edition. Click on the image above to watch the movie. If you need the Quicktime player, you can get it here.

Sean's Extreme Room Makeover

We surprised Sean this summer with an Extreme Makeover of his room. On his last day of Tae Kwon Do camp, he came home to watch a short video that showed the last of his room before we made it over.

Then we set up a toy bus in front of his door so we could shout "Move that bus!" and he could see his new room.

In the two weeks before, we had to tell Sean that the garage was torn up with "Dad's Scouting stuff" and that he couldn't go in there. Brian was in on the deal -- in fact it was his idea -- and he kept the secret well.

The theme of the new room was nature. The biggest change was we bought a used loft bed and painted it white, and then supplied it with some really cute camping bedding. We made a snake hat rack and snack handles for his dresser. We also painted up a knick-knack shelf and some other items in his room to change the color around. We adorned the walls with new posters and some of our own photos from our own family adventures. We finished it off with some new stuffed animals and a bean-bag chair.

Sean really, really loved the idea and he was soooo much fun to watch. I made a video of it, but I'm having trouble with the video stuff on the computer, so I'm still working on it.

UT Rec Sports Soccer Camp

Brian and his buddy Pablo spent a week in early summer at a soccer camp run by the UT Sports Recreation department. The went for half a day for five days, learning lots of skills and having lots of fun.

Bri really enjoys soccer and has a good head for it. We are struggling with what to do in the coming season with him ... whether to stick with a recreational league or to move him to more advanced competition.

Backpacking at Pedernales State Park

The boys and I went on our first backpacking trip 2.5 miles into the wilderness of Pedernales State Park.

The boys carried most of their own stuff ... clothes, eating utensils, blanket and sleeping pad. We started in the heat of the day on a scorcher, and they did fantastic.

Since it was so hot, we took our time going out; it took us about two hours to reach our camp site, more than two miles from the trailhead. I'm so proud of our boys ... they did just great! Sean even took a spill where he scrapped his knee enough to bleed, but he kept at it. Sean really knows how to hike, too! Keep talking and singing and having a good time.

Once we got out to the primitive campgrounds and decided where to pitch our tent, we went for a cool-down swim in the Pedernales River. It was really nice and refreshing. Then we had a wonderful meal of freeze-dried food. (Really, it wasn't too bad!)

The boys didn't have any trouble falling asleep. Me, I was kept awake by the sweltering heat and the raccoons trying to get into my backpack. Eventually I slept, and when we awoke we decided to head into own instead of cooking breakfast. Actually, we were kind of forced into that because I didn't pack enough water to stay.

It only took us an hour and a half to get back to the car, and again Sean had us going the whole time with his own made-up versions of The Hobbit.

Best of all, they said they would do it again, so we'll have to plan our next backpacking trip. A five-miler, anyone?