We finished off Evelyn’s birthday by heading over to a local Thai restaurant. I was hoping that on a Tuesday evening it would be empty, but it was PACKED. Almost as bad as a Saturday night. People are still eating out in Austin, that’s for sure.

After that we headed over to Half Price Books and picked up an old Native American (Baja) folk album and another Mexican folk album. Nothing much else there. I like picking up these old records because most of the artists haven’t been re-recorded or transferred to MP3/CD.

On the way home we passed by a deposit box for donations and there were, literally, 100 records scattered about. About 60% of them were Christmas records, 35% awful junk, and maybe 5% worth carrying home. In the end, we grabbed a copy of the Amadeus soundtrack (in good shape) and a beat-up Best of Beach Boys album. I’m thinking of going back and grabbing the Christmas stuff.

These had to be broken up into two six minute chunks. Enjoy.

I’ve uploaded the photos I took of Evelyn opening her gifts. We’ll be uploading the video shortly.

Click Here For The Photos

Today is a big day — Evelyn’s 40th birthday. 

That’s one of my favorite recent photos of Evelyn, when she visited the Galapagos last year with her good friend Deb. Has it already been a year? Time flies.

We’ll probably be taking it easy today, maybe going out and about a bit after Evelyn walks the dogs. We’ll also be recording her opening presents, so we’ll have another Virtual Birthday for the folks outside of Austin (which is everyone).

Evelyn got back in Austin on Thursday evening, safe and sound.

She took Jet Blue, which was a surprisingly pleasant experience. They fly out of the small Aguadilla airport (toward the north west of Puerto Rico). It’s a big hanger-like building, and you walk out to the tarmac to board the plane using good-old-fashioned stairs. MUCH less frantic and busy than the San Juan airport, and a lot closer to her parents home.

For those of you fearing a smaller airport, remember that this one is an old US Air Force base. That means it was designed for huge planes. In fact, the main runway is 11,700 feet long. That’s longer than any runway at SJU and only two runways at ORD are longer.

She flew in an Airbus 320 (good legroom, TVs at the seat) from BQN to Orlando, had an hour layover, and then another ride into Austin. Everything was on-time and smooth sailing, which seems to be the exception these days.

This was the first time that we’d gone to the AUS airport, and it was fine. Pretty small, kinda like an old Midway, except not so 1960′s feeling (they did have those classic black 60′s waiting chairs, though). Only one terminal building and baggage area, so it’s easy to meet up and find people. Easy to get in and out of, too. Good, close-in, parking, too. It too was an old Air Force base, converted to commercial. (Our old commercial airport was right in the middle of the city, kinda like Midway, but even closer in. It’s now being converted to a subdivision.)

Unfortunately, Evelyn got a cold about two days before her trip, so she was pretty much exhausted and feeling very sick at the end of it. She spent yesterday resting, and seems quite a bit better now. Hopefully the cold will be gone before our trip to the Smokies next week.

Speaking of the Smokies, we’re driving out there for a week. Sharing a chalet with my parents and Mike. Since it’s a long drive from Austin, we’ll do it in two parts. On the 18th we leave and then stay overnight at Vicksburg, MS. (We’ve stopped there before, in 2006, when going between Atlanta and Austin.) Then the 19th we drive out to TN to meet up and relax.

Evelyn will be in Puerto Rico for about ten more days, returning to Austin on July the 10th. This will give her enough time to finish up the Novena (nine days of prayers) and then have some time afterward for more light-hearted visiting.

If you are considering sending a condolence card to Evelyn and her family, you can direct it to:

It’s regular US Mail, so just use normal postage.

Update: I’ve also posted a gallery of photos from some of our trips. Click Here

Evelyn got to Puerto Rico safe and sound earlier this morning. The flight was delayed about an hour out of Houston, so didn’t arrive in PR until about 6:30 AM local. She didn’t get any sleep on the flight, but sounded okay. Maybe she was drinking too much Champagne in her first class window seat.

One of her cousins, a professional woman in San Juan, picked her up from the airport and she stayed at an Aunts house for a bit. Evelyn’s mom and an uncle (there are a lot of kids in the Soto family) made it to San Juan around 8:00 AM this morning, to do the coroner paperwork and get the body released. (Since grandpa was on government assistance, the coronor in San Juan had to declare the death natural before allowing it to be released.)

I received another call just now and they are on their way back to Lares/Arecibo. Hopefully she’ll be able to get a couple of hours of sleep. Though, I joked with her, “after she plays with the dogs”–to which she responded “how did you know that?” She love her pups and is looking forward to seeing them again. She also gets to see Guy! He’s living in PR for a while. I’m sure he’ll be a very confused cat.

Update: They got to the house fine. The dogs Peachy & Shiloh recognized Evelyn and right now Guy the cat is bring teased by Evelyn.

The funeral arrangements are being made this afternoon, so Evelyn will hopefully get a nap after that is done. I belive another cousin is flying into Aguadilla (on the western part of the island) and Evelyn will be picking her up late tonight (around 2 AM, I think). 

I’m sad to report that today Eugenio Soto, better known as grandpa, passed away at the age of ninety five. The below photo is of Evelyn and him dancing together, back on my first trip to Puerto Rico in 2002. He is singing his heart out.

We received the news at about four this afternoon, and it’s been pretty busy ever since. A quick search of airline tickets, a decision to leave today out of Houston, some packing of essentials, and by six we were on the road. (Since Austin is a smaller city, there are no direct flights to Puerto Rico. It was either a bunch of stupid layovers, or drive to Houston, about 3 hours away, and get a direct flight. We went with the direct flight. Her travel time is about 4 hours less, even including the drive!)

Got to Houston safe and sound at around 8:30, with no lines, no checked bags, and pre-checked in, so she was able to get through security in about 5 minutes. After saying our goodbyes I turned around and drove back home, arriving here in Austin around 11:45, with 320 new miles on the car. She’s on the plane now, and should be taking off shortly, arriving in San Juan at 5:30 AM local time.

A long afternoon, but I’m glad she is on her way to be with her Mom (her Dad is in Chicago right now, visiting, and he can’t get back to PR until Sunday or Monday). We’re not sure how long she’ll be in PR, but we’re thinking at least two weeks, probably more.

In preparation for the Maker Faire in October, we’re going to be setting up a presentation at our local library. You know those glass case things where people put themes in (old photos, etc). One of those. Ours is going to be filled with some of our electronics projects, the goal being to get more people interested in visiting the Maker Faire.

Since the Maker Faire is more than just electronics, there are a lot of crafts–and some really cool ones, Evelyn figured it was a good idea to include some “crafty” things in there. So, we went looking for some more unusual materials, based on some postings we’ve seen on the Make Blog.

Here are two projects. Can you guess what they were made of? Click the link below the photo for the answer.

Purse

Here is a little purse that Evelyn knitted (or is it crochet?) out of a certain material. Now, some may have already seen her giant bag made out of grocery bags, but this one is smaller and doesn’t use bags. Can you guess what it was made of?

 Click Here For Answer

Purse Morphed Into Hat (Unlined)

This next one was going to start as a purse, but kinda evolved into a hat for a small child. This is the outer design, which I think is crochet work. The idea is to line it with a contrasting cloth. It’s really hard to photograph. Maybe I’ll take another picture when she’s done. Can you guess what it is made of? 

 Click Here For Answer