As usual, the crowd back home was entirely too good to me! I had a long visit back in Austin and was treated to a birthday and holiday party, many lunches at Chuy's, and Dieter even was flown in to surprise me on my birthday! I got to see all of the fabulous friends pictured below, as well as many other fabulous friends not captured on film. Some of the folks I got to see include: Isabel and Juan at el Arroyo, Jerry Gosch at Chuy's, Crow and Ajit at Veggie Heaven, Shorty Long at Flipnotics, and Dan and Bill around town. I can't honestly remember if I saw Reed downtown, or if that was the year before? Geez... either time flies or I'm just super forgetful! I also don't know if I can claim seeing one friend was more exciting than another, but I'll tell you the best surprise of the whole trip was seeing Droopy! It's been a long while since I'd seen him and it was wonderful to catch up. Well, enough babble. The photos are already a year old and I don't have any intention of dragging them out longer! I don't have much to say at this point, so please enjoy the utilitarian posting!

On the flight to Austin

Trail of Lights with Isabel and Dieter

Zilker Park Trail of Lights
Dieter and I met up with Isabel, Juan, Cindy, and friends for the traditional ogling of the holiday light displays set up in the park. :)

The Tree

The Tree

Spinning under the tree is fun!

Me and Dieter

Evil Gnome

Chris and Alyssa graciously hosted a Christmas Party and my Birthday Party!

Beal and Dieter hadn't seen each other since summer

Chase is Alyssa's cute new puppy!

Chris and Aimee (little did I know they'd marry 7 months later!)

Andy and Mike with the coveted foot lamp!

Kat and I are awed by Dieter's new kung-fu hamster!

Beal, Suzan, Me, and Isabel! (she pinched us, hence our screams!)

Katherine and Mike wrestling like the old

Shawn and Dorothy made an appearance!

Surprise Birthday Party for Chris's 26th Birthday!

Chris enters the surprise party with a blank expression... seemingly not too surprised

Chris's Cake with wrong number of candles :)

Charad and his lady friend

Getting dirty with Alyssa and Charles!

Why do crowds always gather in kitchens?

Chris and Brian drink some beer

We had time to go play around town, hang out, and eat tons!

Dieter chasing Suzan at Beal's house

Mom's a saint and let me use the Suburban

Me and my girl Suzan

Ryan came down from Dallas - hadn't seen him in a while!

Parents took us to Threadgills for yummy home cooking!

A Lovely Christmas with the Family!

Suzan's part of the family and we hung in RR!

Dieter's part of the family too!

My parents at the Oasis

Stef and Charlie stopped through on their way from LA to AZ

Charlie's new (huge) truck

At New Years, we partied at Shawn & Dorothy's house!

It wouldn't be New Year's without firecrackers!

Isabel came with me to the party

James Laljer - loving father of explosives!

Joanna Stephens - loving mother of our cast!

Lindsay is my friend :)

One more sparkler picture

And then we hit another New Years party at Thomas Allen's house!

Me and my boy Wasicek!
I was hoping to see Greg who'd just moved back to Austin from Boston, but no dice. We apparently just missed each other at the party. I got there after leaving Shawn and Dot's, but by then he'd left for another shindig. Sad! However, not all was lost! I got to see tons of old friends from RRHS who I hadn't seen in about six and a half years! Too fun!

I hadn't seen Pat since about 1995!

Robin and I did newspaper together in HS!

Andrew has classes with us!

Tony was still cute!

And a happy new year to all!

The End! Thanks for a fabulous trip everyone!