I was drafted last week to provide an update for the public Ultima Online website on the progress our team has been making. If you’re really hard up for reading material, you can see it here. Whee! I’m published! I think next time I’ll try to do it as a sonnet.

We celebrated Emily’s 9th birthday this past weekend in an atypically low-key manner. We were all still pretty well worn out from Kathy’s folks’ visit, the work on the garage, and the marathon sightseeing escapades. (“Behold, the Alamo!”) A few of Emily’s friends and family assembled on Sunday after church for a good long swim, chicken fajitas, and general relaxed fun-having.

Kathy found Emily a bike at a garage sale, which she and Abby heavily customized with colored spoke covers and nail polish to patch the nicks in the paint. It was one of those things that, looking at it, I knew Emily would either be crazy about or completely abhor. Fortunately, she very much liked her unique bike, and has been having a good deal of fun with it.

I’ve been avidly following Tad Williams’ Otherland saga since its start, and enjoying it immensely. Today I found the last volume of the series at Barnes & Noble, quickly grabbed it and made for the checkout as fast as I could. I’m looking forward to finally seeing many of the mysteries and questions that have been set up in this series resolved. But with a 1,000 page book to which I’ve been looking forward for quite a while now under my arm, don’t expect to hear much out of me for a week or two!

Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and its varied spinoffs, the Dirk Gently novels, and a fair bit of other good stuff died on Friday at age 49 of a heart attack. Tributes are here.

Kathy’s folks and Martha left for home this morning after a week-long, too-short stay at our home. They had driven down from Grand Island, New York, a neat community that sits on an island 26 miles in circumference (which Kathy has circumnavigated on a Jet Ski). Their house looks out over the Niagara river, upstream a few miles from the falls. They were surprised at how hot it was down here already, though I’m sure part of that was due to the fact that Kathy’s dad, an electrical contractor and handyman extraordinaire, spend the majority of his time down here helping to finish out our garage, which we’re turning into a guest room and mother-in-law suite. It looks fantastic, so I’d definitely recommend Russell Kuusisto and American Electric if you need any electrical work done in or around Buffalo, New York.

The highlights of the trip included a trip to Lookout Mountain, where we enjoyed Joe Day’s eco-tour of their plot of the hill country and Barbara’s delicious cuisine in the company of hummingbirds, goldfinches, and white-tailed deer. We also went down to the Riverwalk for dinner one night, dining at a nice Italian place just across the river from Jim Collum’s Landing, a great Jazz club in the bottom of the Hyatt from which occasional blue note escaped to float across to us. When our waitress brought us our meal, she had to set the serving tray into the flow of pedestrian traffic momentarily. A blonde haired college student who looked like he might have had a few too many ambled up to the serving tray and was completely stymied, coming to a halt with his cigarette hanging over our meal. After he stood there for 10 seconds, showing no intention of moving, Kathy got up, grabbed our plates, and said “Would you mind not smoking over our food?” Continuing to display remarkable mental agility, our friend said “I didn’t know it was your food!” before shuffling off down the river.

Though Texas autumns don’t compare with those of New England, its springs are nonpareil. Lady Bird Johnson spearheaded a massive sowing of wildflower seeds along the state highways, the fruits of which we still enjoy. Earlier in the season there are a spectacular few days when the Bradford Pears have blossomed when you’re startled by snowy white trees around every corner. And for about 3 weeks, I was frequently surprised while walking outside by a blast Mountain Laurel scent.

As the weather warms, many of the early bloomers are fading. One notable exception is the prickly pear cacti, which have been sprouting new spring green lobes for the last month or two, and which are now busting into extravagant bloom. I took this shot about 3 blocks from our house, in the middle of a whole field of these magnificent plants. There were several different colors of blossom, ranging from orange to pink to yellow, but this shot showed off the blooms the best.

Last Thursday, I plotted a surprise date for Kathy and I. The destination was a place I knew only from its website: Lookout Mountain, just outside of Wimberley. As we followed the map out into the hill country, we were a bit surprised at just how isolated the site was. We passed ranches, crossed cattle guards, and traversed many an unnamed country road, eventually climbing the hill to what looked, not like a restauranct, but like someone’s home.

Which, as it turns out, is just what it was. Joe and Barbara Day, who greeted us warmly at the door, have been opening their home three or four times a week since April 1998 to serve up their unique combination of good cooking, prize-winning pies, Texan hospitality, and a wealth of knowledge of their beloved hill country and its flora and fauna. Joe has done a tremendous amount of work on their property to bring it back to as natural a condition as possible, efforts that are evidently much appreciated by the veritable menagerie that keeps the Days company on their homestead.

As we stood on the back porch before dinner, we watched the group of 8 white tailed deer just down the hill eating the corn the days had provided while Joe told us about his “Texas Guppies” (Japanese Koi), the oldest of which had been with them for 19 years. There were a tremendous number of birds come to feed at their seed, thistle, and hummingbird feeders, as well, and I was able to get some very useful information on how to best attract the wee flyers. (I have fond memories of my growing-up years when Mom McMains kept a hummingbird feeder above the hammock. I had few better times than adjourning out back with a good book to enjoy the pleasure of fine writing punctuated by the buzzing hum of the feeding avians.)

We then adjourned to the Day’s glassed in porch to enjoy a dinner that showed off Barbara’s talents as a cook to good advantage. Kathy enjoyed a filet mignon stronganoff, and I a tuna salad baguette sandwich made with tuna steak rather than the usual canned tuna. Both were excellent, but paled in comparison to Barbara’s Peachy King Upside Down Cobbler, a chemically addictive combination of peaches, toasted almonds, carmelized brown sugar, and vanilla ice cream. Zowie.

And did I mention the view? The hilltop home boasts a phenomenal 300 degree view of the surrounding countryside, encompassing several local landmarks such as the Twin Sisters and the Devil’s backbone. Though it was overcast on Thursday, the sunsets are reportedly spectacular as well. The Days thoughtfully provide a pair of binoculars for each table as well, allowing closer inspection of the surrounding countryside.

Rounding off the fun is a gift shop featuring not only a selection of bird feeding supplies, books, and other ecological tidbits, but also the work of several local artists, including ceramics, photography, and some spectacular cut paper scenes. Wimberley is well-known for its community of artists, who make a good showing here.

Between the good food, excellent company, abundant wildlife, and spectacular views, the trip to Lookout Mountain is one that’s definitely worth making. We’ve already made reservations for when Kathy’s folks come down to visit next month.

Finally, justification for my natural tendency to gravitate toward the hammock when free time presents itself. (An all-too-rare occurance, these days.)

Viva, slugs! I’d start a revolution, but I feel a nap coming on.

If you’ve never visited, set aside 30 minutes sometime to explore Virtual Parks, a beautiful collection of Quicktime VR panoramas of many of the most beautiful places in the western United States. It’s an amazing collection of work, marrying Adams’ love of nature with a new medium.

Since the new church started, I’ve been putting together the lyrics for the music in PowerPoint so that the congragation can read them and sing along. However, PowerPoint is definitely not designed with that job in mind, and while it can do it, it does so clumsily and with a fair bit of effort.

So, as a programmer, what’s the natural thing to do? Write a new software package, of course! I’ve been working on Oratorio for a month or two now, and finally pressed it into service this past Sunday, when it worked like a champ. It’s still not ready to be turned loose on the world at large, but it is getting to the point where it’s useful, and having a few more eyes on it would be welcome. So, if any of you are interested in testing it out, let me know what kind of system you’d be using it on, and I’ll let you know where to download a beta. I’m building it for both Macintosh and Windows, with interoperability in mind, and would welcome feedback from either side of the fence.