Wordless Wednesday: not already!!?!!

New kid on the block

We took a quick trip to Austin last weekend, mainly to see Sally's new digs. Her new duplex apartment is very nice, but what really blew us away was her new office setting.

She recently moved from one of UT's oldest buildings to its very newest. Her department is Statistics, but the buildings' main tenant is the Computer Science Dept., which accounts for the structure's two names: Gates and Dell. Both somewhat well-known in the computer field, I would say...

It is an impressive-enough building to have its naming rights shared!

Since Saturday there was a home football game, we couldn't park as close as we wanted to, but we had a nice stroll down Dean Keaton and Speedway from our parking spot. 

There are always interesting things to see on this monstrously large campus. Like the public sculpture above, or these neat decorative touches on the Molecular Biology Building...

...as well as other impressive architecture...

... and even a great look at the Main Tower occluding the sun...

But the real scenic treats awaited us inside the new building. What an airy feel for such a large structure!

looking up from the lobby

the statistician and her father taking a short tour break in the lobby

There were lots of interesting interior design features, like this colorful hallway...

.... and these unusual lamps and chairs in the lobby ...

Of course there still has to be an infrastructure, but I even thought that this set of pipes, in the stairway leading to Sally's 7th floor office, was photo-worthy:

It's only the last flight of stairs that are enclosed like this. The first 6 floors are reached by means of these fabulously cantilevered open steps. What great views they afford to tourists with cameras, all the way up!

Some samples:

looking down at the lobby floor

monumental sculpture outside the front door

the top landing's glass is tinted orange...for energy-saving, or just school spirit?

the Tower again, out a clear glass window

In fact, I was so taken by the stairs that I couldn't stop taking pictures of them, trying to capture their quirky beauty. I hope this sample of my shots will give you some idea of how neat they look:

What a great way to keep in shape, to climb up these stairs every day to work (although with her several-soccer-games-a-week-lifestyle Sally hardly needs more exercise). And along the way you get to admire this architectural gem! 

We're very proud of our little professor and thoroughly enjoyed seeing where she gets to work.

Wordless Wednesday: more tiles

The other westside lake

There are three small-ish Catholic universities in San Antonio: Incarnate Word, over on my side of town, founded by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word; and on the west side: St. Mary's, where I work (and which you've seen many pictures of through the years), founded by the Society of Mary; and Our Lady of the Lake, a bit south and east of St. Mary's, founded by the Sisters of Divine Providence. (Somewhat prideful note: St. Mary's is the oldest of the three!).

Whereas I see St. Mary's a lot, obviously, and at least occasionally drive by IWU (although not much lately, since it's in traffic-tie-up central due to a big drainage project), I hardly ever get to the OLLU campus.

So I was pleased to have the opportunity to do a little sight-seeing there prior to a meeting held in their handsome library last week. Not, that's not the library pictured above, but rather their incredibly beautiful main building and chapel. Victim of a devastating fire in the spring of 2008, it's been lovingly rebuilt, much to the delight of the west side neighborhood it graces, not to mention fans of monumental architecture everywhere.

The library is quite lovely, too, and although it has a completely different look, there's an echo of the older buildings' soaring loft in its entrance....

But it's hard to beat the older buildings for photo opps. Here are some individual shots of these imposing buildings:

In the nook behind them, you'll find this lovely parklike cloister...

Unfortunately, the chapel wasn't open (you can see photos of its interior, however, by following some of the links above) but I was able to check out the inside of the main building, and was so impressed with its decorative detail...

These old wooden stairs reminded me of a similar set at St. Mary's, that I've shown you in a previous post. Unfortunately, though, the flooring surrounding our old banisters looks positively shabby in comparison to the tiles running along the OLLU main hall. I was so taken by this lovely flooring that I had to take pictures of all the different patterns that we saw...

Aren't they all gorgeous!?

You might be wondering, however, about the "lake" reference in my title, as well as in the name of the school. There is a lake there, as you can see on this campus map, but I didn't have enough before my meeting to get pictures of it. Next time I have reason to visit this lovely campus, I'll have to be sure to allow time for this feature.

But why is it an "other" lake?

Because the westside lake I'm most familiar with, and that I've occasionally blogged about, is Woodlawn Lake, which I pass every day on my way to work.

Although the #90 bus doesn't skirt it quite as closely these days as it should. As I recently mentioned, there's a big drainage project (yes, another one!) that's closed several blocks of Woodlawn Avenue by the lake. The day of my meeting I transferred to the bus heading south to OLLU near one end of this monstrous construction site, and while waiting, was able to snap a few photos.

Here are samples of the types of pipes that are waiting to be installed. It looks like they've still got quite a bit of work to do, doesn't it? Even though some of the pipes (the large ones in the second photo) have been on site long enough to get tagged...

I think my bus will be detouring quite a while longer.

Wordless Wednesday: cool clouds over the lake

Waiting for a new Mad Men

My bus route to work has been taking rather a long detour when it gets near Woodlawn Lake. (And it looks like we'll be making this detour for a long time; there's some big drainage project underway, after a big resurfacing project just a year or two ago...go figure.)

Anyway, the detour takes us through the very nice neighborhood (that probably isn't too happy about buses chugging through) of Jefferson Heights. It's named for the architecturally quite distinctive Jefferson High School.

But what's caught my eye are a few houses with such a retro vibe I had to share them.

What struck me as 50-60's stylish about this duplex are the rectangular cutouts in that porch wall. 

Whereas this other beauty, on a large corner lot, looks so much like a place Don Draper could love. (I apologize for the smudge about two-thirds of the way up; it was taken out of a not-pristine bus window.)

Of particular note are the gold-ish-yellow (does anyone else still have a mustard- or avocado-colored appliance? our dryer is the former) slats in front of the windows on the left. What function do they serve? What are they screening? Have any owners ever considered taking them off?

All I can find for a Mad Men return date is "Spring 2014." Let's hope it's early spring. Then we can really revel in retro chic.

More Sunday sports

Yes, it seems odd, since we usually take in our sports from the comfort of our own TV room, that we've actually been to live sporting events two Sundays in a row.

Some of you might have read about our attendance at a Spurs pre-season game last week. Then a few days ago we were out again.

Our much-decorated women's national soccer team played Australia in a friendly match right here in San Antonio! (Here's the article in Monday's paper about the game, with much better pictures than you'll see here, I'm afraid.)

It was very exciting to get to see these real international stars in action, and they didn't disappoint. Here they are, just after celebrating the second of what was eventually 4 goals scored against the hapless Aussies.

But the real treat in seeing such a match is getting to watch the players you are used to seeing in a mediated fashion (i.e., on TV) right there in the flesh. Pretty cool. 

Especially the really big guns...

super-super-star Abby Wambach warming up...she scored the 3rd goal later

a somewhat blurrier super-star, Alex Morgan...
moving too fast for my lens!

Here are some more scenes of the occasion. Don't worry, I'm not including any more in-game shots. My little camera just isn't up to that challenge. Unlike the ones these guys were sporting, along with their endline credentials which gave them a much better vantage point:

I didn't realize that our own national federation is celebrating its centennial this year...

The beginning rituals of international matches are always fun to watch. Here the flags are being carried out onto the pitch in advance of national anthems and team introductions:

And here are the starting teams entering the field:

You can see by the upraised cell phones in the foreground that I wasn't the only person trying to get good pictures here with inadequate equipment.

The fans themselves are another big attraction at soccer matches. This group of very enthusiastic and tireless amateur cheerleaders (the best kind! you don't need amplified prompts or scantily clad dancers when you have these folks with their drums and chants!) kept up the spirit level non-stop. It was fun cheering and clapping along with them...

I'm showing you this particular shot our of the many I took of this group because of the sign near the left edge: "Keep Calm, We Have Hope." Which could be just a nice philosophical epigram, but it actually refers to our goalkeeper, Hope Solo, who did make some pretty spectacular saves in the first half to guarantee our clean sheet.

Henry was kind enough to take this picture of me with the field in the background before the game started. Honest, I didn't know that the Aussies would be wearing Houston Dynamo orange when I selected this t-shirt to wear...

It might look like there aren't too many people in attendance, but that's because this isn't really a soccer friendly venue (in fact, it was a fine crowd, of over 19,000, the largest to see the US girls at home this year).

The rather inappropriate site for the match was our (ridiculous) Alamodome, which is vacant most of the time, and therefore available for this match. It should never have been built, at least not where it is, thereby taking the space that should have been saved for a Spurs arena. But that's a topic for another discussion, and probably a different blog.

It is a somewhat attractive structure, though, especially with the gorgeous blue sky we had Sunday as a backdrop...

Since it was such a lovely day, we didn't mind avoiding the extortionate parking charges and walking from a free spot several blocks away. I took these pictures on my way out.

Live sports! As much a treat as live music, and we don't take in either of these entertainments as often as we should.