WNBA Pre-Season in Austin: Las Vegas at Dallas

Sunday night, CB, JAL, Tanya, their kid (redacted) and myself went to the Moody Center at the University of Texas to catch a WNBA pre-season game.  

WNBA does play some games not-at-home but in cities where they know there's interest in women's sports - like my own Austin, Texas.  And given my own watching of women's basketball, both college and pro, that tracks. 

The game was well-attended, if not sold out.  I think it holds just over 10,000 when set up for women's games (they don't open the upper tier) and I could see some empty seats, but there may have been a story there as they were in one block in one area.  

This was a game between the Dallas Wings and Las Vegas Aces.  Las Vegas won last year's WNBA championship, and deservedly so.  And, along the way, two of my favorite players became A'ja Wilson and Chelsea Gray.  I watched some of Dallas last year but felt they were being coached horribly - and it became an exercise in frustration.  But this year is clearly a different story.  

Owls and the Circle of Life

I'm going to start with the "good news" portion.

That horrendous looking thing above which seems like something out of a 1970's Toho Studios creature design workshop is, in fact, a Great Horned Owl owlet.  Ie:  a baby owl.  Now it's adorable, right?  Lil' baby owl.

Over here in Austin, we've sort of made the Great Horned Owl that nests at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center a  local celebrity.  We call her "Athena".  And every year for well over a decade, she's found a perch in the planters built into the gateway arch to the Wildflower Center.  In that spot, she lays her eggs and raises some bebes.   

Don't worry - it's safe from people and prying eyes.

Happy Jackie Robinson Day

Today is Jackie Robinson Day across Major League Baseball.

Post B-Day Report Out

Well, I'm 51 now.  Whoo-hoo.  

Every year I do a post on my birthday with a song about the year.  You can listen to the playlist here.

I'm also raising money for the Austin Humane Society, where we adopted Jeff the Cat, Scout and Emmylou.  So feel free to donate a ton of money.

Just imagine being someone who has been reading this blog (and The Signal Watch) since I started posting in 2003.  Good gravy.

I don't hide from the birthdays as they come, but what I want to do for my birthday has changed greatly.   For our 50th birthdays (Jamie is about 3 weeks older than me) we had a joint party.  This year all I wanted to do was nothing.  Like, let me just do the absolutely normal weekend things I always want to do and usually find a reason I can't or shouldn't.  

We Came Back From the Moon!

Emmylou is overwhelmed with the moment

So - our brave astronauts are back from The Moon.

First, I abso-@#$%ing-lutely bawled my eyes out when the parachutes popped and I knew the crew was going to be safe.  Wasn't expecting that emotional reaction at all - but I guess the risks were larger in my mind than I'd wanted to express.  But more than that - it's been so long since it seems like people wanted to try for something bigger than pettiness and cruelty and, frankly, just helping one another survive.  And Artemis II brought that back in ways I haven't felt in a long, long time.

beyond The Moon

NASA's page has plenty of great photography, and I highly encourage folks to take a look.  

We Went To The Moon!

what if it was made out of spare ribs?

The mission is far from over, but today has been a day I wasn't sure I'd see in my lifetime (as a conscious adult).  Today, people orbited the moon.  

The mission is Artemis II, and as I type this, four people are currently doing science aboard the Orion Capsule.  They just witnessed a lunar eclipse in space.  

clockwise from left - Koch, Glover, Hansen, Wiseman

The astronauts are:

• Reid Wiseman - Commander
• Victor Glover - Pilot
• Christina Koch - Mission Specialist
• Jeremy Hansen - Mission Specialist

The crew is notable for containing the first woman to orbit the moon (Koch) and the first Canadian to the moon (Hansen).  

I've been blown away by how well they all seem to communicate ideas, feelings and concepts as they're on their journey.  It's really moving.  If these people are eggheads, they seem to have found the poetry in their souls.  

I'd also mention NASA clearly is hiring when it comes to women in STEM as a great number of the staff in Houston are female - including CAPCOM and Science Chiefs.

So far they've been stunned by the *actual* color of the moon, which is maybe more brown and green than we know (but this may be an artifact of their eyes being in space).  They've seen actual collisions of meteors with the surface.  They've seen the topography, and named a crater after Commander Wiseman's late wife, Carroll, which makes me want to @#$%ing cry just thinking about it.  Imagine being able to name something that may have that name *forever* after the one you love?

The goal is to sort out what else we need to know about the moon and test current equipment before we start on next phases to establish a permanent lunar base.  

Is this a good idea?

I think so.  But I also think it sounds wildly dangerous.  So.  Hopefully we know what we're doing.  

The feed is really good for sharing audio and some images.  The real haul will come probably after the astronauts are safely home - which is scheduled for the 10th.  

For the current feed as of 04/06/2026:

Easter

Happy Easter, to those who celebrate.  To those who don't, you're missing out on a holiday that blends the apotheosis of a whole multi-national religion *and* plastic, brightly colored chicken eggs filled with jelly bellies.  And sometimes you get ham.

I always found Easter a very odd holiday.  Depending on the whims of government officials, we might get Good Friday off, but mostly not.  So it's not a holiday that felt relaxed in any way.  At our house, there was always a lot of pressure to fit in a lot in a very short amount of time, eat an obscene amount of food, plus you had school on Monday immediately following.  AND my folks would have family friends come, or we'd go see them.  Which means, as a kid, it was a holiday where you got to wrap it up by cramming in homework while full of ham and jelly bellies whilst over-stimulated.  And sometimes while in a moving GMC van.

It's also a holiday where the temps are starting to get hotter in Texas, so it could also be a day where you dressed for church in the morning, but by the time church ended, you were maybe a bit dewy.  

Speaking of...

I also remember knowing the jig was up on good Easter baskets as a kid when my mom dropped a stick of Right Guard in my basket circa 5th grade.  So, yeah, here's The Good News of Christ's resurrection and the hint that maybe I was aging into an era of getting a little ripe.

As a religious holiday - sure.  I like Easter.  Who doesn't like knowing you're forgiven and get a pass to Cloud City?  

As everything else - my feelings are mixed.  

This may be because I once ate the ear off Steanso's Easter Bunny which led to me getting as beat up as I ever got in my life.  And, frankly, I deserved it.  Do not eat the ear off another man's chocolate Easter Bunny.

These days my parents have wised up and host a Saturday Easter celebration at their house so they can do church-related things all day Sunday and not worry about us.  Which we did yesterday.  Easy squeezy.  I ate too much sugar, though, when my niece shoved a "bird's nest" in my face and said "I made these.  You have to eat one." and I already had carrot cake on my dessert plate.  

My egg hunting this morning was limited to laying in bed while the dog chewed on my hands (her favorite morning activity) and then I ate some Wheaties while trying to remember who Jalen Hurts is, and wondering if he has any scandals afoot.