free stuff always tastes and sounds better...

this was the weekend of 'free.' saturday was family day. i live about 30 minutes from my parents and my sister's family and i dont see them nearly enough. and everytime i make it out there, i regret not going out there more. and my parents joke that i only see them when i need to use them for something...which might be somewhat true, but not completely. yeah i use their washer and dryer and eat their food but im also spending quality time with them in the meanwhile so i just see it as killing two birds with one stone. so on saturday i went over there to take advantage of their cable tv to watch the aggies play the bears who we like to play in OT evidently...but at least we one this time, right? at the same time i got some lunch and did a whole lot of laundry. so maybe i killed 4 birds..
i found out that my little mollie dog has congestive heart failure which was sad to hear. so now she has to take heart pills twice a day...i guess she is getting kinda old but she still acts like a puppy and is only like 10 lbs so she still seems very puppy-ish to me. but enough about that. i also got to hang out with my neice and nephew who get cuter every day and are now in the stage where both of them must have equal attention paid to them otherwise the other gets real jealous. ellie's in a phase right now where she tells you about every 5 minutes that she loves you so thats just real cute.

now onto what all these pics are from. sunday, 10-2 was the anniversary of when lance armstrong was diagnosed with cancer. and so as a thank you to austin, he threw a big free 'party' for all his longtime fans and supporters. although originally from plano, he moved to austin 15 years ago and proudly calls austin 'home.' and although i dont completely agree with lance's personal beliefs, i do think that what he is doing in support of cancer is remarkable. the celebration started with a show by another austin local, bob schneider. his show was great - a good mix of his newer stuff and older stuff from lonelyland. he ended the show with a great cover of 'drift away.' then they showed a video recapping the last 9 years or so of lance's life highlighting the 7 tour de france victories, of course. lance came out and said some words, introduced some of the current tour of hope riders, and then gave austin mayor, will wynn, a plaque basically proclaiming austin as 'the greatest city on the planet' and one of the famous yellow winning jerseys. then his fiance, sheryl crow, came out and ended the celebration with a great show. she played a few songs from her recently released album 'wildflower' and then all of her older well known stuff too. the show was pretty laid back and lance's kids and other random neices and nephews i suppose kept running out on stage but the band didnt mind and would dance around with them and allow them their 15 seconds of fame.

so yeah...it was a great time. and back to my original point - whether its a football game, laundry, a meal, or a concert - free things are always better.

you can see more pics from the 10-2 party here.