smith summer fun

So, What's up with us?

TIME FOR A HOT TUB

Collette (or poodle) loves the hot tub. When we get ready to climb in, she jumps in before us. She will swim around in the hot tub for a few minutes, but prefers to "cuddle" with mommy. We asked the vet if it was OK for Collette to be in the hot tub with us...the vet said, "who doesn't like a hot tub?" He said "its OK as long as you rinse the chemicals off her body after she leaves the tub.

Elizabeth Smith, New Jersey. CLICK TO ENLARGE

THE BATS OF AUSTIN TEXAS

THE BATS OF AUSTIN, TEXAS.

Tim and Laurel Smith, Austin

Laurel and I bought a new digital camera a couple weeks ago and I am still trying to learn how to use it. The pictures of bats 10 feet above our heads did not come out so well, but then I was using a night setting. I should have used just the regular setting.

Thousands of the little critters! There was a small crowd watching the bats from this vantage point. The big bat watching area is down by Town Lake (Colorado River) where there are millions of bats living under the Commerce Street Bridge. We have been there before. Amazing. Austin is big bat watching country. We were at a country store today and it was selling bat nests. It is a wooden contraption, but I don't know how it works. We may buy this one of these days. The little critters are pretty harmless. Once in awhile you here of one with rabies, but for the most part they are pretty safe to be around. (The guano does smell though.)

This one was not so spectacular, but it was something else and quite a bit smaller. I wish the other pictures would have turned out better. For awhile it did not seem the bats would stop coming out from under the bridge.

Laurel decided to buy some tonic water (in case the bats had malaria). So now we are having a gin and tonic to celebrate the evening. We will probably watch 'Mr and Mrs Smith' on TV tonight.

This weekend Austin has a big biker rally. Typically, 6 to 8 bikers die in Austin each year and most of that is from traffic accidents. The place is absolutely crawling with bikers today. I had my camera stand up and bikers had to slow down to figure out what I was doing.

CLICK TO ENLARGE PICTURES.

It is a pretty remarkable thing that happens every year in Austin, Texas.

ISIS TILE, LLC (A SMITH SMALL BUSINESS INITIATIVE)

These are ceramic tiles that Michael Smith and his company are creating in their new small business. Their company name is ISIS Tile, which will also have an internet site soon (isistile.net). The tiles that you see are what each tile looks like before they are glazed. Each tile is hand made, and can be colored with up to 165 glazes...some are single color glazes and some have multiple colors applied. They have a kiln which can make up to 65 tiles at a time, and because customers want flat panel tiles with similar glazes, they have a machine to create these as well.

Because each tile is hand made by artisans, they are considered works of art. Some people buy them for decorative purposes, but the primary purpose is for general ceramic applications around the home and business (decorative walls, bathrooms, kitchen back splashes, and other applications.

Michael Smith, Albany, New York