Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving 2007! We had Val's family over and had a wonderful time. It was our first time making and hosting a turkey dinner. By recommendation, we ordered a Willy Bird Sonoma turkey online (Williams Sonoma) and we don't regret it! It was worth the extra $$, and was so exciting to wait for our fresh young bird in the mail! It arrived Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and we began brining it Wednesday evening. If you've never brined a turkey, we recommend you try it next time. Deeeelicious!




Pumpkin place settings (Val got a little Martha Stewart on us). Talk about recyclable table settings--these babies will become pumpkin bread, cookies, and pies over the following week.








Getting ready for a post-meal Ratatouille viewing. An appropriate movie after a feast--all about enjoying food and following your passion!






Postprandial turkey sedation...

Winged Migration--or Attack of the Birds?!?!

Jon woke up Saturday morning with a plan to drive us 1-1/2 hours south of our little town to Bosque del Apache, NM, where thousands of geese, ducks, cranes, and other birds fly from the north to rest for the winter, or en route to destinations further south. I wasn't prepared for the incredible beauty and awe we experienced--birdwatching is WAY cooler than I thought. Possibly the most magnificent bird to spot was the lone bald eagle on the preserve (he's on the dead tree in the photo below). Make sure to click on the videos to see and hear the sheer mass of birds (less than 1 minute each).

Friends of the Bosque has created and maintains the preserve for all kinds of wildlife, but the biggest attraction each year are the birds. They even have an annual Festival of the Cranes, an event complete with tours, classes, photography contests, dinners, etc. We'll miss the festival this week, but the birds are there through February so we'll be back to visit.

We're Auntie & Uncle Mr. Ashe Now!

Our friends Jennifer and Jonathan Lucero gave birth to a lovely, healthy baby boy on November 9th, 2007. That makes us official!

Christian Lee Lucero
Born: at 4:08pm on 11/2/07
Weight: 8lbs 4oz
Length: 19in

We're so honored and happy to welcome this little treasure to the world! Congratulations guys!

More Home Cooking: Paella Night

A couple Saturdays ago, we spent the evening with Val's folks, sipping Spanish wine and making a traditional Spanish paella. It was a lot of prep--shucking shellfish, chopping veggies, and measuring everything out--but once we threw it all together in the paella pan, under Mom's direction, it all came together into one of the most delicious home cooked meals ever. She still has the magic!

The best part of the evening was the four of us enjoying our handiwork at the table with a bottle of Bodegas Castano 2004 Monastrell Yecla Hecula, and Val's mom teaching us a repertoire of dirty words in French. Quelle soiree!

Whirlwind Tour

This has been a month of extensive travel and events for us (Val's been on the road nearly every week of October and November). Aside from family illness and tragedy, it hasn't been all bad (for privacy's sake, please call us for details). Val's biz travels the past month have taken her to San Francisco, Galveston TX, Atlanta, and Naples. Sorry to disappoint everyone, but that's Naples, FL. Still it's a pretty place, isn't it? This was the view from my hotel room at the Naples Grande; the Gulf of Mexico is just beyond those buildings in the distance.

I have a couple weeks off from business travel until the week after Thanksgiving when I'm off to Vegas for our largest annual user conference, Autodesk University. This year, the agenda will be all about teaching those architects and engineers how to use our products for sustainable design. As always, it's a great conference, culminating in an event on the final evening to entertain over 7,000 attendees, including employees, Las Vegas-style.

If you ever wondered exactly what I do for the company, here's an example (and an opportunity at shameless self-promotion):

Galveston, Texas

I'm in Galveston, Texas, this week to attend the International Association of Drilling Contractors, carrying the banner for our Autodesk solutions into this new territory for our company.



As I like to describe it, I'm here to hobnob with the J.R. Ewings of the world. I've never been to Galveston, but I always hear about what a cute resort town it is, an island right on the Gulf of Mexico.

So far, it's not been so cute. It's late night on Halloween, and we did see some adorable kids running around the streets with their folks, going to local haunted houses in the plantation-style mansions, but mostly it's gas stations, convenience stores, and strung out people running in front of your car. Maybe it will look different during the day....



Texas is it's own "whole 'nother country". The people are so polite and gracious, but you never know what they might say about you when you leave the room. The hotel decor is always sentimental--it makes me pine for my 80s days of fuschia pleather tight pants, white flowing poet shirt, jellies, silver bangles, and big Jersey girl hairdo. It's not all bad, I suppose. You do get great stories and jokes out here. Like:

Once there was a Texan who was visiting Harvard and was lost. He stopped the first person he came to in the hall and said, "Can ya'll tell me where the libary is at?"

To which the affronted Harvard grad replied, "Sir, this is Harvard. At Harvard we never end our sentences with prepositions. Kindly rephrase your question."

"OK, can ya'll tell me where the libary is at, asshole?"

That's a nice one. I think I heard it over 10 years ago when I frequently traveled to Hill Country for a different job (between Austin and San Antonio). Ahhhhhhh, Texas. It seems I'll never be free from your bewitching spell.....

What Does Your House Look Like?

We get this question a lot, followed by "you should post some photos...." We haven't done much with the house lately, but are expecting window coverings soon (no more butcher paper. Yay!). We chose some groovy Hunter Douglas shades. We'll post more photos when they're installed. In the meantime, this is the what the house looks like: