Lofty goal.

Long before we moved, Katie decided she wanted a loft bed. Back at our old house, her bedroom was exceptionally small, so I spent an inordinate amount of time pricing loft beds: beds from IKEA, from other furniture stores, even from mail-order companies that would send you a custom bed built to your specifications (some assembly required).

We never managed to get that bed before we put the house on the market, so with a move imminent, we decided we'd wait until after we moved to get Katie a new bed. And then we waited and waited and waited... and WAITED to sell our house and get in our new one.

So when spring break rolled around, I realized that we've been in our new house for 18 months, and Katie's still sleeping on her poor old bed. Since Kates was going on a week-long retreat for spring break, we figured that'd be the perfect time to surprise her with a new bed. (I originally just wanted to replace her old mattress. It was in awful shape, with a coil dangerously sticking out of one side. But since we had a little extra time and access to a pickup—and IKEA had one in stock—we went ahead and got the loft bed Katie really wanted.)

So after one leisurely trip to Frisco, we had Katie's new bed and mattress! Of course, that means my next few days were spent assembling the darn thing.

Just clearing out her bedroom took hours. Finally we had the old bed out and enough floor space empty to begin the assembly. Like most IKEA projects, the instructions were fairly easy to follow, but it still took me a while to get the whole shebang up.

On Thursday afternoon, we picked up Katie at church. I gotta admit: I was nervous she wouldn't like her bed. We so wanted to surprise her, but I was afraid we could be the ones surprised if she decided a loft bed wasn't for her after all.

I shouldn't have worried. Katie was THRILLED! Stunned, but overwhelmed!

Once she'd been home a few days, she and I went desk shopping. We found this little white desk at Target, and it fits quite nicely under her bed. We were also excited to see that its legs matched the ones on the white bookshelf she already had in her room.

It was fun surprising Katie with her new bed, and it's great to know she's getting good sleep on her new mattress. And the desk? It's getting plenty of use, too.

S.O.S.

On the first Saturday of spring break, I drove to Arlington and boarded a bus bound for Austin. The reason? The Save Texas Schools rally at the state capitol.


I signed up for the bus trip through one of the state teacher groups, not knowing who else would be on my bus. Luckily for me, one of my friends from school was assigned to the same group!

As soon as our bus unloaded in Austin, we found ourselves afloat in a sea of signs:



As we got ready to march, we took in all the creative signs, many urging use of the "Rainy Day Fund."

While waiting for the march to start, we were greeted by Arlington State Rep. Diane Patrick. She's one of a handful of legislators to attend the rally.


We first started marching north on Trinity. It was incredible to be part of this mob making its way up the street. Then we crested a hill and realized...
...that there was ANOTHER mob heading south on Trinity to join us! Incredible turn-out! (Later, when we arrived at the Capitol, volunteers put sticky dots on all of us protesters so they could count us. They ran out of dots after giving out 11,000! After counting "dot-less" people by hand, organizers estimated the crowd to be 12,000+ strong.)


Finally we made the turn and started heading south toward the Capitol.

Some of the signs were heartbreaking. Many represented teachers who will be out of work this fall. Others were held by parents who were fighting to keep their neighborhood schools open.











At one point we took a little potty break to go inside the Capitol. And you know, if I'm in there, you can bet I'll get a shot of the rotunda!



We stood behind the speakers' platform for most of the rally. One of the highlights was provided by Dalton Sherman, a 7th grader from Dallas who seems to have a better handle on public education than our governor.

Here's video someone else shot that day:




As the rally came to a close, it was time for us to return to our bus for a box lunch and the ride home.

We were hot and tired, but we would do it all over again to show our support for Texas schools and our anger over the mismanagement that has led to this financial crisis.

Every little ping they do is magic.

After our Saturday spent exploring UT, we awoke Sunday and made our way to Kerbey Lane Cafe. Love that place! The California omelette is delish with its fresh avocados and tomatoes, but the gingerbread pancakes? Mmm, mmm, MMMM!

From Kerbey we went to the Co-op. Katie bought a hat there.

And then she wore it here.

Since we make it to the Rangers Ballpark only once a year or so, attending baseball games is a special treat.

Getting to see the Longhorns at the Disch is all too rare. As much as I like watching the Rangers play, there's nothing like the ping of the aluminum bat.

It's so much fun to see the right field buses—and the Wendy's sign. (If a batter hits that sign, everybody gets a free Frosty! Alas, no Frosties for us that day.)

Just sitting out in the sunshine was awfully pleasant.

But getting to see the Horns beat up on Stanford?

Now THAT'S a fine way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Explore UT, Part 2.

After our busy first half of the day, we were pretty famished. We were on our way to an airplane design demonstration when the Double Dave's cart distracted us.

How were we supposed to resist pizza slices as big as our faces? (The squirrels behind that fence couldn't resist, either, so we had to move to a squirrel-free zone.)

Here's what we saw in the parking lot where we copped a squat:


Pretty cool to see a driverless car! Of course, if I saw that on I-35, I'd probably find an alternate route!

Since we missed the airplane session, we went to the Texas Student Publications open house. It was my first time to be in the Daily Texan offices since, oh, 1990?

Here's the copy desk where I worked (usually right where that black chair is). The old VDTs we used are long gone, but the room's configuration is largely unchanged.

The news side also has upgraded to Macs, but other than that, the partitions are the only noticeable difference.

The editor who was hosting the open house encouraged us to check out the morgue for some of "my" papers, so we did. It was fun to show Katie my name in the staff box.

But it was wild to find the much older papers stored in that room.


This paper's from October 1912. I loved the mention of the Oklahoma game in the middle of the page.

This one (also from October 1912) mentions in a headline: "Forward Pass Prominent." Love it! The ads inside were fun to see, too.

Before leaving the basement, we visited the Cactus yearbook area, which I'm not sure I'd ever seen before. Then it was back across campus to wrap up our day. Along the way to the east side, we came across...

a solar car...

and a computer-operated drum set. Impressive!

Eventually we hiked all the way to the Frank Denius Fields. This practice field is used by the Longhorn Band and the Longhorns football team.

I've seen this when driving along 35's southbound upper deck, but it was a thrill to see it in person.

During this activity we got to line up with the LHB. Katie insisted that we go to the front with the piccolo players. Even though it was crowded up there, it gave Katie a chance to hang with another picc player and gave me the chance to watch the football guys leave the bubble after their practice.

After we ran through a couple of LHB commands and marched 5 yards up and back a few times, the band lined up to lead us back to the Tower.

It was a long hike, but a whole host of us followed behind.


Finally we made it to the Tower for the "class photo" that culminates Explore UT. We stood amid what seemed like hundreds of school groups to pose for the picture.

Did I really take ANOTHER picture of the Tower? Yes. Yes, I did. Never gets old--for me, anyway!

Days like this just confirm my belief that my alma mater still exemplifies excellence. (And if Katie picks up on that idea, all the better!)

Before checking in to our hotel, we met two of my favorite Austinites for dinner at Chuy's. It was great to reconnect with them while enjoying my all-time favorite meal. Both were amazed at how tall Katie is now. We missed Brett and Ryan, but it was wonderful to end such a long day in the company of good friends.

With Explore UT and our Chuy's pilgrimage complete, we had just two more items left to check off on our Austin agenda.