thanks derek and sandra
thanks for the great show.
thanks for your honesty
thanks for sharing your stories
thanks for the encouragement
you guys made last night a memorable one.

holland state of mind...

its cool, cloudy.
and i got caught in a little bit of rain riding to work today.
not a bad way to start the day.
i think i am more productive work wise when its raining.

i'm off to a slow start and everything else around me doesn't seem to notice.

mish and i just got back from a short trip to austin.
we dropped in sunday afternoon and went straight to acl fest.
we didn't think we were going to go this year but made a decision to do so while standing in front of the ticket booth.
we hooked up with jay and megs.
listened to some good music.
and then remembered why we weren't going to do this again.
i think i am getting old.
or maybe i'm just a venue snob when it comes to listening to music.
ok, give me a year and i'll probably do this again.
that night we got to hang out with my little sis and brother in law.
huge props for letting us crash their place.
love you guys.

on monday mish and i had lunch with our good friend jennifer who is rocking teenagers worlds in south austin.
yeah, she rocks.
after lunch we took our time heading back to dallas.
we decided to stop and check out the Inner Space Caverns in georgetown.
mish was really excited because a friend of hers told her how one year she went with a group of people to the cave and when they turned the lights off so you can experience total darkness she kissed a boy.
mish was looking forward to total darkness.
and you know, so was i.
but when we got to the bottom of the cave and the tour guide turned the lights off so we could experience total darkness i was so distracted by the fact that i couldn't see my hand in front of my face that i forgot to kiss.
mish had leaned over and everything but to my defense i couldn't see that.
but for the recorded we did kiss in a dimly lit cave 69 feet below I-35.

it was only one night.
it was all loosely planned.
and it got pretty expensive.
but i had a really great time with my wife in austin.

just please don't hit me...

i just bought an odometer for my bike.
now i can keep track of the miles i'm putting on it.
did you know that much like a car there are scheduled tune ups when you hit certain mile mark?
i'm not yet sure what those are but i'm sure i'll find out soon.

so there are some tricky bike related issues i'm beginning to notice about flower mound.
one being that there are not a lot of bike racks to chain up to.
really not much of anything unless you are at a school or park.
i've had a hard time finding just a simple pole like a handicap sign if front of a store front.
so i've had to be creative there.

another thing i've noticed is i have to really plan out my route between point a and point b.
things to consider:
-time of day (is school about to let out, will i get caught in the dark)
-sidewalks vs streets (not every road comes with a sidewalk. or even a continuous one and some streets should just be avoided altogether)
-amount of time it takes to get places. starbucks on 407: ten minutes. to work: 13 minutes. to parker square: 15 minutes

i guess one good thing about all the current construction is the possibility of more sidewalks or bike paths.