your man on the ground

Hurricane Katrina hits Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama

I have family who live in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and my mom tells me that we have been unable to reach them so far. We are anxious to hear good news about Charlie F. Brooks, Jr, his wife, Vivian, and the rest of their family there. (Update: Everyone is safe. My grandparents got in touch with them yesterday.)

Thank You Mrs. Byrn

Dear Mrs. Byrn,

I was talking with my brother a few weeks ago about our musical histories. Craig and I took piano lessons for more than a decade, with a few pauses in-between. We had several piano teachers along the way, each with different styles of teaching and different tastes in music. I learned important musical lessons from each of my teachers, but I appreciate most the short time that I spent learning from you, my last piano teacher. I wish I had spent more time in your training.

Coalition of the Willing

Today (Easter Monday) is a holiday in Austria, so Christian, John and I decided to go out last night looking for trouble. We found plenty and caused our own share down at the Bermuda Dreieck (Triangle). We don't normally spend much time at the Bermuda Dreieck, but this weekend was an exception. Most of the usual night spots were dead, with so many people out of town over the Easter holidays. I know -- Ausreden (excuses)...

Left to Right: Me (Texas, USA), John (Manchester, UK), Christian (Queensland, Australia)

Snowboarding (Ötscher, Niederösterreich)

Yesterday I woke up at 6:45 (something that happens VERY rarely) to go snowboarding at Ötscher, about an hour and a half, by car, from Vienna. Christian drove, and manchester (Sleepy) John completed our trio. As I mentioned here a couple of months ago, I recently purchased a Burton snowboard, with bindings and Burton boots.

This was my first time using my very own board, and I had a blast. I have snowboarded before, but am not particularly good at it. I'm better at snow skiing, but I've wanted to pick up boarding for a while. In the past few years, I've gone snowboarding once or twice per season (both in Austria, and in the States when I'm usually home for Christmas holidays).

I've always used rental boards in the past, so I've had a different setup each time. I'm excited about having my own board. I think that using the same good equipment with the same settings consistently will help me improve my technique.

I started out a little slow yesterday, but by midday, was feeling pretty confident, and getting some pretty good turns in. The conditions were so-so. It's been unseasonably warm this week in Austria, so we had a mix of slush and ice, but I've definitely snowboarded and skiied in worse conditions.

I made it back to my apartment in Vienna at around 18:30 (6:30 PM), where I took a long, hot sauna, followed by a nice hot shower and a quiet evening relaxing at my place.

So, I've got 4 photos for you. Christian took them all with his Canon Ixus 400, a handy, pocket-sized camera that takes some nice shots and is much more practical to carry around than my big Digital Rebel. We only took a few photos, since this was a daytrip. I'll try to get some more next time we hit the slopes.

Me on my snowboard. With my bright yellow ski jacket (purchased at Wal Mart in Montana last year), I was one of the most visible snowboarders on the slopes.

We took the obligatory lunch and beer break at about noon. They were showing Skiing World Championship events live on the TV's there. From left to right: Christian, John, Me.

Can you tell that I had fun that day? from left to right: Christian, Me, John.

Christian and I on the lift.

Sorry, No Photos Here

I do have an abundance of new, interesting pictures to put online, but my mom and two younger sisters are visiting Vienna for the holidays, and I'm running on very little sleep.

We've been walking all over Vienna - Naschmarkt, Mariahilferstrasse, Kärntnerstrasse, the Graben, Rotenturmstrasse, Griechengasse, Grinzing, Hietzing, and even up at Kahlenberg. We've visited the Christmas markets at the Rathaus, Spittelberg and Schloß Schönbrunn. We also walked some of the gardens at Schönbrunn and toured the inside of the palace -- and that's just in Vienna!

Yesterday we took a train to Mallnitz in Kärnten / Carinthia. "We" includes my mom, my younger brother (Craig), his girlfriend (Sabrina), my two younger sisters (L. and S.) and I. Mallnitz is a tiny, picturesque Alpine village in the Hohe Tauern (High Towers) National Park. Grossglockner, Austria's tallest mountain at 3,797 meters (12,457 feet) is part of the Hohe Tauern range, and is not far from Mallnitz.

Mallnitz threw an exciting festival last night. The setting was perfect - more than a foot of pristine snow fell on the town and surrounding areas yesterday -- excellent timing. The festival was held in the town square - a stream running through it, typical, centuries-old alpine architecture surrounding it. The festival centered around the Perchten, demons with roots in pre Christian Norse/Germanic mythology. Perchten seem to originate from a legend about Freya, wife of Odin/Wotan, chief of the Nordic gods.

But it's 6:25 (AM) and I need some sleep (another big day tomorrow), so I can't do the whole post tonight. The pictures of the festival, and of our time in Salzburg, are great, and the info I'm finding on the Perchten (most in German) is pretty interesting stuff.

I will get the pictures online ASAP.

San Antonio Photos

I went to San Antonio in August with my mom and sisters.

Kaktus Korral: Cactus ranch, period clothing & gun store. Only in Texas. Now, our Deutsch speakers might be asking themselves why the store's name is written in German ("Kaktus Korral" is German for "Cactus Corral" in English). I'm not certain about this, but my guess is that the spelling has something to do with the fact this part of central Texas was a popular area with early German-speaking immigrants to the USA.

We went to Mi Tierra for dinner one night. I stuffed myself with a combination plate that was delicious. Great Mexican food. Man, I miss it. The gentlemen carrying guitars are mariachis.

Gulf Coast Photos

We spent some time bay fishing this Summer on the Texas Gulf Coast.

The shot was taken from the front yard of our bay fishing guide's house / inn, where we also spent the night. It was nice, with comfortable bunks and several bathrooms. The food his wife cooked was excellent... Pancakes for breakfast and fresh seafood for evening meals.

We went fishing in the boat pictured here. According to Marvin Strakos (our fishing guide), German and Czech immigrants made up much of the post-Spanish, early European population of this area of Texas. Mrs. Strakos was born in Texas, but her family was originally from Germany. When she was younger, many of her family members still spoke German regularly amongst themselves (years after moving to Texas).

Texas Ranch Photos

Craig and I spent some time out at my dad's ranch one afternoon in July. The "ranch" is a few acres with a pond, 40 cows and an unfinished house near Brookshire, west of Houston.

The speed limit at the ranch is 15 Miles Per Hour, but the roads are pretty bumpy, so you probably wouldn't want to drive much faster than that, anyway.

The horses ignored the water, but they couldn't resist the sweet feed that we had for them.

My Siblings and I

I have one younger brother and two younger sisters. We all went bowling one evening this Summer when Craig and I were visiting our family in Houston.

Craig - He's the musician of the bunch (I play a little piano, when there's one around). He joined me in Vienna about 3 years ago, and now he has a great girlfriend, plays guitar and bass in several bands, and works as a tutor, English teacher and guitar teacher. I'm proud of him - he's doing really well.

Me. I'm told that my bowling form is pretty entertaining to watch. In this picture, you can see my fierce glare of determination, as if I thought I could knock down all 10 pins through will alone.

L. is learning to drive. My mom tells me she's doing a good job. I'm just glad I'm not living anywhere near Texas right now. (Just kidding, sis - I love you!)

S. - she's the youngest of us all, and is thankfully not yet learning to drive (officially, though I have a few pictures of her driving a car -- I may post them soon).

Downtown Houston Photos

Johnny Sal and I got together one evening and went on a "photo safari" in downtown (Stadtzentrum) Houston. That included drinking a couple of beers and wandering around downtown looking for interesting stuff to take pictures of, all while catching up with a good friend and enjoying some sorely-missed Texas humor.

To start off the tour, allow me to introduce you to Johnny Sal. John and I have been good friends since we met 7 or 8 years ago while studying at University of Houston. In this picture, he's DJ'ing at the Drink Bar, our usual hangout at night in Houston. Though not taken on the same night as the photo safari, I threw in this and the next picture so I could introduce you to the safari-ers...

That's me in front, wearing one of the €2.50 T-shirts I picked up in Thailand a week or so before this picture was taken. Sal is on the turntables behind me, and Hill and Roca are standing in the background.