A Yankee in Texas

I was trying to get Sasha to look at the camera, but I really like the way this shot turned out. She looks like she has something on her mind and is oblivous to me taking the photo.

– Jeremy

Today I got the new lens I ordered. It’s a Canon 50mm 1.8/f aka the “Thrifty Fifty” or the “Fantastic Plastic”. It’s a great cheap lens, but it feels cheap and I have heard it’s not very durable. However since it is cheap and takes great pictures it has become a must have lens for Canon owners.

Here are some photos from the top floor of a parking garage:

– Jeremy

On Valentines Day Nicole and I met up with Kearney and Kevin at Austin Books. Then we headed over to the Triangle for lunch at Mandola’s Italian Market for lunch.

Kevin sketching while we wait for our food. You can see the finished drawing on his blog.

Kearney.

Excellent Pizza.

(sorry the pictures aren’t that great. they were taken with my digital point and shoot which takes mediocre images indoors.)

– Jeremy

 A few weekends back Nicole and I ventured out of Austin for a day trip.

First stop was Shiner, TX home of the Spoetzl Brewery where they make Shiner beer. We got a quick tour of the facility which was unfortunately not in operation because it was Saturday. After the tour went to the gift shop/tasting room and tasted a few of their other beers.

Next stop was Blacks Barbecue in Lockhart, TX.  I really enjoyed their brisket and sauce. Nicole didn’t care for it.

Finally on our way out of Lockhart we stopped at Kreuz Market for more Barbecue. Nicole really enjoyed their brisket and I didn’t. They didn’t appear to have sauce which is one of my favorite things.

On the verge of slipping in to meat induced coma’s we headed back to Austin. It was a very fun day.

– Jeremy

Thursday night Nicole and I took a class, “Easy Raw Food” at the Whole Foods Culinary Center. The class was taught by Erika Martin who is a Certified Living & Live Raw Food Instructor. If you’re not familiar with the ideology of Raw Foodism the basic concept is you eat food that hasn’t been heated above 115 F. Most Raw Foodists are vegans and they eat mostly fruits, vegetables, and nuts.

The menu for the class was:

• Green Smoothies
• Homestyle Minestrone Soup
• Spicy Fajitas with Guacamole
• Super Easy Chocolate Pie with Cashew Cream and Chocolate Sauce

I pretty much liked everything. Nicole on the other hand only liked the Chocolate Pie. The “Green Smoothie” consisted of Parsley, Mango and Banana all blended together and although it was green it basically tasted like Banana. The Minestrone Soup was my least favorite it was like eating cold chunky pasta sauce (which is basically what it was). Of course I am not a huge fan of tomatoes anyway. The Fajitas besides being cold/room temp. could almost pass for normal Fajitas and were my favorite dish of the night. The Chocolate pie was also very good and could easily be passed off as a regular old dessert. Get this the filling is made from Raw Cocoa powder and Avocados. Yes I said Avocados, but you’d never know it.

We had a great time. While I doubt we’d ever go 100% Raw I think the real goal is mainly to introduce more healthy foods in to our diet.

– Jeremy

NOOP.nl has compiled their list of “Twitter Top 100 for Software Developers“and if you scroll down you’ll find yours truly listed at #72. I am not sure I belong on this list since I don’t really Tweet or Blog about development, but I appreciate the shout out! I do plan on blogging and Tweeting more about development in the future. If you’re interested keep an eye on I Heart PHP we will be posting more content in the near future.

– Jeremy