Leander, TX

Animoto.com on Active Rain - How to do it.  Well, I've been a real fan of animoto.com for almost 2 years and have an all-access pass which costs $30.00 per year.  They do have some more expensive options now for Realtors but I'm not biting.   I don't care if the video says animoto.com at the end.  My information is embedded in the video.  But I still love Animoto.com. They make creating a video super easy. All you do is select your pictures, drop in your graphics, choose some music and their engine does the rest. For the last couple of days I have been playing around with how to post a video here.  It seems there is no easy way to do it directly from Animoto.com.  But if I upload the video to youtube I can then use their code to embed the video here.  It doesn't work if you embed the animoto code. So I'm writing this post and then I am going to save it in draft mode.  Then I'm going to open the post again and switch to HTML and pop in the youtube code. ....and Voila. I can't figure out any other way to accomplish this. It does lose something from animoto.com to youtube. This is my first video posted on active rain.

Well tonighit from 6-9 I am going to participate in National Night out. Once a year on the first Tuesday in August this event is held all over the country. What happens? Well besides fun and games and a cake walk , our subdivision tries to forge new relationships between the police and fire departments and we try to meet our neighbors. The focus is on forging new relationships and improving relationships between the residens in our neighborhood and the police departments and fire departments This interaction between goups and the police can generate awareness of crime and drug prevention activities. In support of National Night Out all of us are turning on our porch lights. So if you live in Benbrook Ranch come on over to the pool and join us. We are having food, lots of activities for the kids. They can take a tour of a very cool fire truck!!!

We moved to Texas almost 2 years ago and I am still often asked why? There were lots of reasons! First of all there are 4 seasons in Texas and they are Summer, Feels like Summer, Almost Summer and Christmas. it never really gets cold here. The weather around the Austin area is hot in the summer. We've had the hottest July on record this year. I haven't noticed the humidity. We live on the edge of Texas Hill Country so there are lots of things to do. I'm only 3 hours from the beach. I can visit a winery within a half hour drive. I've seen my first armadillo. Texas jack rabbits are really weird creatures. There are any number of museums within a 30 minute drive and then there is the music. Austin Rocks all the time. We've been to South by Southwest and it was wonderful. I've come to enjoy Texas Barbecue. But what I really love is this!!! Just outside my door on any given night I can see a beautiful Texas sunset. There is nothing like it!!!

Southern's Pizza and Sports Pub - Leander, Texas is located at the corner of Crystal Falls Parkway and Route 183 in the same strip mall as the new Starbucks but at the other end of the buiding. We went in here on a lark because there aren't a lot of pizza restaurants in Leander. We do have the chain pizza stores but very few family-owned ones. This one is new and we have ventured in on 3 occasions now. It has become one of our favorite places to chow down. The pizza is yummy and the dough is made fresh on-site daily. They use high quality cheese and it is spread from end to end on the pizza. It doesn't have that plastic taste. It is real cheese and very good. Not only do they have great pizza they have cheap beer and wine at $3.00 per glass. Not too shabby on the prices. The inside of the restaurant is inviting and as you can see there are lots of families with children present.

Here's is a picture of the pizza we ordered. It was mushroom and cheese. Really tasty.

A. C. Bible Stadium - Leander High School - I have been watching the progress of the new stadium at Leander High School and it looks like it will be ready when school opens in August. This picture was taken this morning and shows the home team side of the stadium. For those of you who remember the original stadium was torn down at the end of last season. It was originally from Odessa, Texas and moved in pieces to Leander years ago. With the huge growth in the area Leander needed more stadium room. This new stadium will seat 14,000 people on any given Friday night. Here is a picture of the digs for the visiting teams. Not quite as nice but still an improvement over what was there before. I can't wait for football season to start!!!