Austin Tree House: La Casa Archives

Fixin' It Up

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on June 13, 2008 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A few nights ago, Mama and Ol' Dad were ready for some relaxation, so we queued up Sexual Healing, dimmed the lights and uncorked the bubble bath. Imagine our disappointment when the party was cancelled because we couldn't get the BainUltra air jet bath to power on!

Ol' Dad had some time yesterday, so it was fixin' time! I traced the problem to a GFI which probably tripped during one of those vicious electrical storms. It turns out the GFI was under the tub so Babycakes and I put on our miner caps and went exploring!

Babycakes could hardly contain herself. She loves to fix stuff with Ol' Dad!

We were going to have to crawl under the bathroom floor via a storage space in the Midget Room, so Babycakes grabbed the necessary gear.

Once in the Midget Room, we found Fluncan doing what Fluncan does best ;)

Deep inside Austin Tree House.

Our destination.

For only being certified in tree climbing, Ol' Dad did a pretty good job of spelunking.

We trekked upstairs and tested our work. Success!

Power Walking

By

Ol' Dad

on June 13, 2008 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Babycakes wanted to take a walk today and decided to bring along her camera.

Babycakes is a budding photographer!

Who would have thought Babycakes would have been the self-portrait type ;)

What the scorpions see.

After the photo session inside, Mama and Babycakes were ready to go for their walk. The 103 degree heat limited the walk to the top of the hill :)

The flowers along the driveway can really handle the heat.

The bamboo we planted shortly after we moved in has finally come out of its funk, proving my theory that you just can't kill the stuff... even when you try.

Honestly, officer, it's only bamboo!

Me & My House

By

Ol' Dad

on May 31, 2008 3:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Babycakes brought home her classroom journal from Eanes Elementary on the last day of school. It was interesting to see her perceptions of self, home and Der Gnome ;)

The Incredible Shrinking Sail

By

Ol' Dad

on May 24, 2008 2:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

P from AustinModHouse came over to help me put up a shade sail that was supposedly custom tailored in Australia. Apparently, they make better sails than the rest of the world, even though the Egyptians actually came up with the idea.

We started with the best of intentions but were quickly sidetracked by Chic-fil-A Chicken Biscuits.

MSG is a helluva drug ;)

After deciding our tool collection sucked, it was off to the local hardware store in the Silver Sled.

We bagged some kit and tucked it into one of the Silver Sled's crannies. Who needs an X5?!

At this point, we were feeling pretty good and looking forward to the beer at the end of the tunnel. But after forcefully unfurling the sail in the most masculine manner possible, we discovered that it was, well... somewhat irregularly shaped.

A proud Master-P braved the crevice below to illustrate the poor sail's shortcomings.

Just like Humpty Dumpty, all the King's horses and men just couldn't get that sumbitch back together again.

After fumbling about a bit and ruminating on the nature of Australian shade sails in general, we decided to experiment. Perhaps we just positioned it the wrong way...

Ol' Dad explored the seedy underbelly of Aussie.

After working through our desperation and nihilist angst, we decided to try the scientific approach in order to confirm our shade-tree sail installer suspicions.

Master-P struggled to make sense of it all.

After an exhaustive set of measurement, forgetfulness, remeasurement and finding a pen and paper, we confirmed that something was flat-out off about Aussie.

We even managed to convince Mama - not an easy task!

Dejected at being humiliated by a mere sheet of woven nylon, we decided to rebuild our fragile male egos in the only way possible.

Ol' Dad and his ego boost beer.

Master-P felt much more at ease after the break.

Although completely unintended and in no way acceptable to more sober individuals, the result was quite appealing after four hours in the hot Austin sun.

Master-P in the cover photo of his upcoming CD, Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot.

Gnomstein 2: The Awakening

By

Ol' Dad

on May 15, 2008 7:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

He's alive! ALIVE!!!

One Hail Of A Story

By

Ol' Dad

on May 10, 2008 10:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A violent hail storm just moved across the Wild Basin.

The front deck was littered with various sized hail.

Babycakes found several chunks of ice as big as golf balls!

Texas Rat Snake Condo

By

Ol' Dad

on May 8, 2008 4:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today's landscaping uncovered some cool new rocks around the Magnolia tree.

Yet another place for the wide variety of Texas snakes to take up residence.

Septic Haiku

By

Ol' Dad

on April 27, 2008 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The storm howls at night

A raging torrent unleashed

The crap floats idly

Ingredients:

Large quantity of water flowing through drain pipes.

Steep incline serving as a drain.

Slightly ajar septic tank lid.

Combine together and mix well until the tank alarm goes off in the wee hours of the morning.

Luckily for us, the pump wasn't affected by the lightning and managed to catch up a few days later. The tragedy was averted and more beer was purchased.