After scurrying around like elves, climbing up and down ladders, draping lights, blowing breakers, the agents of ERA Colonial Real Estate's Georgetown, Texas, office have decorated their offices and grounds in breathtaking, eclectic fashion.   

Invitations have been sent.  Ads have been placed.  Announcements have been made.  Goodies are being prepared.  Now, they're ready to party!

On Sunday, December 17, 2006, from 6:00-8:00 p.m., Santa Claus and ERA Colonial Real Estate welcome the residents of Williamson County (and especially the children) to an open house at 4909 Williams Drive, Georgetown, Texas.  Children can give their wish lists to Santa, there will be food, drink (of the non-alcoholic variety), and merriment appropriate to the season.  And lights.  Lots of lights.  Lots and lots of lights. 

Come one, come all, and ...

One of the joys of living in Central Texas is that you can live in the country outside of Jarrell on a little ranch with your horses and cows and chickens, oh, my! and, when you feel the need for a little culture, drive in to Austin for the evening to see Hamlet.  With all the parts played by 5 people.

Let me back up.  My daughter, who is attending UT-Austin, called and asked if I'd like to go see Hamlet Thursday night, and I needed to decide right then, because she needed to buy the cheap tickets right away while they were still available.  "Sure," I said, and she got tickets for herself and her SO and for her Dad and I. 

By the time the night arrived, both SO and Dad had to work late.  (A not uncommon occurrence.)  So she invited a couple she knows to join us.  Turns out ...

When your old stompin' grounds gets an historical marker, and one of your favorite bands way back then was the opening act on opening day, it does sort of tend to make you feel a little old.

Education can not only be fun, education can be a blast.  Education means so much more than sitting in a classroom; it means life, it means the things you learn as you go about your daily activities, it means really cool television, it means helping others who are trying to learn. 

Here's some websites to illustrate my meaning: 

James Burke.  Ah, James Burke.  The man I'd most love to follow around London.  Author of Connections 1-3.  I once got to hear him speak live, at the Paramount Theater in Austin, Texas.  He spoke for a couple of hours about, yes, education.  And then, when he was finished, and left the stage, he got a standing ovation (for a talk on education!) and demands for an encore - which he provided, given that, after many, many minutes, it became clear that we just weren't going to leave until he did.  Amazing man - and more f ...

Energy costs are on everyone's mind, and alternatives are a hot property - though many homebuyers aren't sure how to find and evaluate them. There are a number of technologies to choose from which can help make your next house the home of the future.

Alternative energy gives new meaning to the real estate mantra of "location, location, location" – what works in sunny California may be different from what works on the windy plains. But just as there are many styles of homes for buyers' diverse tastes, there are varied options in energy systems – with more than one sometimes working hand-in-hand for the same house.

Wind power – an ancient energy source now seen in high-tech "windmill farms" with tall propeller-like turbines – has come down in the cost for generating electricity by over 80 percent since 1981. Geothermal energy – home heating powered by underground steam warmed up by the temperature of the earth itself – is a source getting more attention in the ...

Well, not really.  It's about family, and celebration, and being with the ones you love in the deep, dark days of winter (hah!  In the 70's and sunny here on Christmas Day!).  But, for a family as food-oriented as ours, it's also All About The Food. 

This year, there was a little bit of a changing of the guard in the cooking department.  Instead of me being the Major Chef, the duties and pleasures were spread around a little. 

Starting with Christmas Eve Dinner.  Our son being home for the holidays from New York City, where he currently resides, offered to fix Christmas Eve Dinner for us.  He and his father went off a-hunting to the new Whole Foods Market down on Sixth Street in Austin, where he'd not had the opportunity to go on previous visits.   Hours later they returned, laden with the fruits of their labors, and DS set to work. 

After m ...

We got ice.  All the fence lines, barbed and no-climb, are coated in a quarter inch of ice.  Wrecks all over the place.  IH35 (the major highway from Mexico to Canada) is closed from Jarrell to Salado (which means, my neck of the woods, just two miles away if I could get there), due to the unique slant of the highway there that makes semis go sliding back down the slope if they should make it even partway up.  (We - the town, small enough not to even have a flashing yellow -  put up 400+ people due to that a few years back, the highway being closed from here to Waco, some 73 miles, that year.)

Windchill of 9.  I'm out here by myself because my husband had the good sense to camp out at work last night rather than become a statistic by getting stuck or wrecked somewhere trying to get home.

I went out to feed, and Lydia, who lived in Vermont for her first six years and for whom, consequently, this is a ...