Lisa's Lounge

Here's our newest addition to the Williams side of the family! Andon Samuel came in the world today at 3:26pm weighing in at 7lbs, 6oz, and 20-3/4 inches long. Mama and baby are doing well. This photo was sent by his mommy from her cell phone! :-) Congrats to my baby cuzzin.

Wow - two MAJOR brushes with fame in a 10 day period! The first was on my flight home from Oklahoma City last week - there were many delays because DFW was covered in stormage, and just about every flight American has to anywhere from or to Austin goes through Dallas. So, I missed my connector in DFW, but luckily found the next flight out and was able to get on it. They all had already been sitting there for about 45 minutes. So I get on, crawl to my window seat, and get situated. I didn't pay a lot of attention to the two others in my row. The guy next to me had a cool Australian accent, and the woman on the aisle was going to Austin on business. We hit some serious turbulance along the way, and I thought the guy from Australia was going to T-T in his pants. Once we landed he turned to the lady on the aisle seat and said something like "Have a good time in Austin, and if you get bored tomorrow night come see the gig". Well, being the good wife of a musician, the ole ears perked up at that. We were already walking off the plane, and I asked him what gig. He said "Rosa something or other". I said "Oh, La Zona Rosa? Cool!" He said yep, that was it. **DING** Didn't hit me til about 10 minutes later as I was looking for my baggage that was never to come that if he was "gigging" at La Zona Rosa he must play for a fairly successful band. I looked it up when I got home and sure enough! I was sitting next to the lead singer for Jet.

My second brush, you ask? Even bigger, in my book. I went to a meeting in Steiner Ranch yesterday morning, and when I was leaving, look who was in front of me! :-)

Went to Oklahoma City to visit my dear friend Vicky - haven't seen her in about 3 years! I've known her since we were 12, and we got in LOTS OF TROUBLE in our 20's.... But then she had all these kids and stuff and moved and all. It was so good to see her. And a bonus was her almost (Sept 24) 19 year old daughter was visiting from right here in Hutto, Texas, too! I don't get to see her much either - she's such a busy girl. She and Brett were buds when they were much younger. We had a great visit, ate some food, drank some beer... on the somber side we visited the Oklahoma City Memorial to the Murrah Building bombing that happened back in April of 1995. What an experience that was. Such a quiet, reflectful (is that a word) & serene place. I have pictures on my flickr site, and here's a few too. (check out the set here. ) Vicky and Alex (that's the almost 19 year old daughter) had already been through the museum and while they recommended it highly, they did not ever want to go again. It has several "chapters" or different rooms, and in the first room you sit in total darkness, listening to a meeting getting started at 9am at a building across the street. The company was taping it - and she says you can here the huge BOOM! of the bombs and then all the chaos. They have artifacts from the bombing, including the axel from the truck that was used to park the bomb. So - taking her advice - I opted out. We were all in tears as it was just visiting the memorial site. No doubt, though, I'll go again next time I go back - I'll just have to get Vicky to drop me off because I'm sure it takes a couple of hours to get through the whole museum. In the photos you'll see a reflecting pool with 2 identical archways/doorways at each end. On one end it is etched "9:01" and on the other it is "9:03". The bombing occurred at 9:02, so the first doorway represents the innocence before the bombing, and the other side represents the lives that were change forever. Also on the 9:03 side is the remembrance fence where people leave hundreds of mementos every day. It really is an amazing thing to see. Whoever designed it did such a fantastic job.

Entrance


9:01 side


9:03 side


The Chairs


The Remembrance Fence (that's Vicky and 2 of her kids in front)

The most anticipated game of the Texas Longhorns' season is almost here. Tomorrow they play the Buckeyes of Ohio State here in Austin. I've heard rumors of the influx of Buckeye fans - expected to be 40 to 50,000? yikes! I won't be going anywhere near downtown tomorrow!
The news folks on the local morning show described the sunrise as decidedly burnt orange and pronounced it a good omen....