GoAubie - by David Gantt

Mixing a little pleasure with business

David — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:09:39 +0000

June was a killer month. I think I was home just 6 days during the entire month including weekends. I decided to take only my point & shoot (a Canon SD780) with me. So all the pictures in my gallery (click the picture below to see all of them) were done w/that camera. Point & shoots are IMO alot harder to shoot and get good pictures than using an SLR. The lag in shutter speed is the biggest issue and w/changing lighting conditions, it’s alot harder to get the right exposure. I found myself defaulting to auto or program mode more and then perhaps making the biggest mistake of them all - just clicking and not thinking as much about composition. But the convenience is just awesome.

I started the month out in Las Vegas at ops reviews. You’ll see pictures from the event (mostly the best systems engineering team in the world). These guys let their hair down a bit when we went go-cart racing and overall had a ball. What a colorful group. I was out on the west coast w/Jeff doing interviews so you’ll also see pictures from San Diego. What a beautiful city. And the weather was outstanding. I was actually a bit cold at night - and then returned to Austin where 100 degree plus days have been with just most of June.

Anyway - I did manage to have a little fun in an otherwise grueling month of business travel!

Happy Independence Day

David — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:58:10 +0000

On Friday night, July 3rd, the Avery Ranch golf club held it’s annual Independence Day bash at the clubhouse. Katie came home from school and joined us w/the Cohen family as we were treated to a terrific fireworks display. Click the picture to see some of the photos I took of the event.

Congratulations to the newest certified divers

David — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:38:58 +0000

This weekend, the country celebrated our Independence Day. In a way, so did 6 newly certified openwater divers. They mastered all of the new skills needed to enjoy the beauty and freedom that only comes from the beauty of being underwater.

The class started as all openwater classes do - students eager to learn but a bit unsure of what to expect. They completed academics this week along with 2 grueling in-water pool sessions where they learned all of the skills they would need. This weekend, they put them on full display at Aquarena Springs in San Marcos where they simply “smoked” the class. The last dive we did was perhaps one of the most enjoyable dives I’ve done in class as I watched everyone put their new skills on display and enjoy the beauty of Aquarena. Each demonstrated very good buoyancy skills as they explored the vegetation and fish around the submersed submarine and then showed their buoyancy skills tackling the rings.

Congratulations to Joe, Chris, Adam, Joshua, David, and Mark as the newest PADI-certified OW divers. Thanks for letting Nick and I in on the fun!

To see the pictures from this weekend, just click on the picture.

Hannah’s Graduation & Tech Visit

David — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:18:37 +0000

It’s been a very busy summer so far. I’ve been on the road since the end of May with only a slight reprieve this upcoming week. I’m so thankful to have scuba classes next week as my downtime.

So….Hannah finally graduated in early June. There were about 500 graduates for the 3rd ever graduating class from Vista Ridge. Graduation was held at the Erwin Center on the University of Texas campus. Wes, Sharon and the boys drove up from San Antonio to be with us. It was really nice to have them this close in Texas. Wes couldn’t believe that the little girl he used to see in Mass in North Carolina picking her nose was old enough to be walking across the stage and about to move out on her own. Bob, Susan and Audrey also joined us. We went to dinner w/Tayler’s family afterwards to celebrate.

Last weekend we did the pilgrimage to Lubbock for freshman orientation. It’s a really crappy drive to get there but Lubbock isn’t that bad when you get there. I laughed when one of the speakers called it an oasis in the middle of the West Texas plains, but when I got into the stadium and could see it from high - he was right. Although I think calling it an oasis is stretching it a bit.

Hannah’s Senior Prom

David — Sun, 17 May 2009 16:36:40 +0000

Last night was the Vista Ridge Junior/Senior prom. Hannah and a number of her bestest buddies decided to forgoe the fancy restaurants and instead invade our house where it was heard “the food is better and you don’t have to leave a tip!”. And of course, I took the opportunity to get off a few photos. It worked out fine as the weather had been nasty all day so we had to move everything indoors anyway.

When Hannah got back from getting her hair done, she walked in and saw all the lights and said “My family is such a nerd family.” Maybe true, but I think the photos were worth the trouble. The kids all seemed to have a great time except when they got home after the prom and somebody had left the garage door open and the cat got outside. Seems Hannah was crawling around in our neighbors’ yards with flash lights looking for him. She found him and got all muddy in the process. As usual - I slept through it.

As always, if you want to see all the photos I took, simply click the picture above.