Artichoke from our Garden!

Convention

This past Thursday through Saturday I was able to attend the AIA Convention in San Antonio (so close!). I bummed with a college friend in SA, and took advantage of the close location to really be at the convention for way too many hours every day. But - it was great. The whole theme was 'Going Beyond Green' and there were plenty of very interesting seminars I attended. The final key-note speaker was Al Gore - great to see in person. I think he's finally found his niche, and probably does this sort of campaigning much better than he ever did for President. His whole idea was that the first great generation was during WW II - they saved the world from a world-wide (not just local, or regional) crisis, and it's our responsibility to be the next great generation in this world-wide (environmental) crisis. He also tailored his speech towards the audience, which was wonderful - related it to architects and the building industry: we have the most to gain from this move towards green, and can be the leaders in this movement. Another presenter said he wished that architects were like superheroes - when towns were in trouble, they would turn on the big 'bat light' and an architect would come to the rescue with a solution. The whole weekend was very inspiring.

And...Kyle and I discovered that we have a company that presents at both of our conventions:

none other than Big Ass Fans!

Sewing 101

So, yesterday I went with my friend Jill to a Sewing 101 class at Craftorama, a new craft shop on South Congress. They've got great modern fabrics and the class was nice and small. The owner, Hayley, taught the class and was very helpful. Both of our bags ended up looking awesome. I feel like I can finally pull out the sewing machine I got several years ago and not worry so much about breaking a needle in two!

Internet Radio Equality Act

Representatives Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Donald Manzullo (R-IL) introduced a bill today called “The Internet Radio Equality Act,” to reverse the Copyright Royalty Board’s controversial ruling which sought to increase royalties to eight cents per song per listener retroactively from 2006 to 2010 for internet radio stations. Copyright Royalty Board’s ruling would render many independent internet radio stations economically inviable.

The SaveNetRadio campaign asks that you take a moment to call your Congressperson to ask them to co-sponsor this legislation. As an internet radio listener, I would love it if you do that too.

To find the phone number for your Congressional representative, visit http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/home/ and enter your zip code.

Birthday Weekend

Well, we spent Kyle's birthday weekend camping (sort of)

and hiking on a different planet (sort of)


Seriously, Enchanted Rock looks like it belongs on Mars or something, doesn't it? The dogs were totally wiped afterwards:

And then on Sunday headed over to some friends' house to celebrate with a real carrot cake and a game of Settlers!