Real estate envy

My favorite bike ride takes me about six miles round trip through the ritzy Regents Hills neighborhood where I get some fierce real estate envy. Most of the houses are in the $1mil range as far as I can tell. Here's my start, with my old man bike at our house:
Honestly, our house, the cars, and the bike are all just great. Well, the ivy could use a trim, and the lawn needs a bit of a cut, but I can't really complain.
But then you compare our digs to these mansions and I start to get jealous. This one is still in our neighborhood, and I believe was done by the same developer. The owners just took the design as far as it will go, and I stop and admire it whenever I go by.
The landscaping, the tinted windows, the driveway, the lamps, everything is put together with the final look in mind. It's got a little bit of a control freak vibe, but it looks stellar. Contrast that with a similar floor plan just down the street. It's by no means a dump, but it's pretty ordinary:
But these are from the realms of mere mortals. The heavy hitters follow. This next pair are both from the same house:
The garage/servants quarters attach to the main house via a breezeway, which leads into what looks like a court yard.
I have a thing for turrets, tile roofs and this color scheme.
These next three are going left to right around the corner, looking at the same beautiful abode with a three car garage. The garage with it's sharp wooden (faux?) doors is one of my favorite things. Like the white house above it's separated from the main house by a little breezeway.
Not the greatest shot, but this house has more trees than any other in the neighborhood. Plus if you zoom in you can figure out exactly where it is, which is why I took the shot.
The tile roof, a nice solid door, and a welcoming front make this one of my favorites in the neighborhood. It's big, but not overly intimidating.
Well, the eye candy makes for a nice bike ride, and this area is hilly, so it's a good work out too. Maybe these will inspire me to pop my career into a reasonable earning range to make one of these shacks mine.

Hanging with my girls

Zoe and I went to Zilker park a couple months ago and stumbled across a guy kite boarding. I love the weird stuff you find in Austin. Zoe was bummed because she fell in the mud. Being the larger than life stage actress type that she is, she can pout intensely, and 30 seconds later be thrilled to be alive.
And moments later she's stoked, despite the muddy paw:
The little cart thing on the right is a big skate board he was able to ride around with the big orange kite pulling him.
Zoe doing a zip line at her friend Molly's birthday party:
We all went to our local nursery to pick up some planting ideas, and they had a great little green house idea that fits with the square foot gardening Stef's been doing. Here it is closed:
There are hinges, and hinged support legs on this side that let you open the whole thing up comme ca:Zoe doesn't always like the nursery so she spends her time sighing, making beleaguered whining noises, and this face:
I like that there's still a little hint of a suppressed grin in there.
Yesterday Stef suggested we all head out to a little festival they were having at the Bee Caves Galleria. We had some vendor food, checked out the stalls and stores, and Zoe went "ice skating" on this neat plastic rink they'd set up:

Zoe drawing

Zoe drew this on my white board at work. It's her rendition of the movie "Cinderella II"

Creepy van

Last time I went to Silicon Valley for work I found this molester van in the parking lot of a movie theater. And people wonder why I get twitchy around clowns. Zoom in. It's really disturbing.