The first two pictures were taken at Rice during the BARK for BARC Pet Walk sponsored by the BARC Foundation. It was pouring down rain earlier in the morning but the rain stopped just in time for the walk.
The next two pictures are just Lida Rose being cute on our daily walks.

Sunday at Rice

Here are a few pictures from our visit to Rice yesterday.

My neighbor and I decided to take the pups over to Rice last night to walk. Here are some pictures I took.

I took these pictures at Rice yesterday. I walk by the Turrell Skyspace every morning on my way to work. Yesterday afternoon I discovered this very cool dragon. Not sure why he suddenly appeared by Valhalla.

I had forgotten how nice it is to work on a beautiful campus. The weather has been wonderful and I've been having my lunch outside everyday at the Brochstein Pavilion. Here is a picture of where I sit and a picture of one of the many beautiful sculptures on the Rice campus. This sculpture "Mirror" is by Jaume Plensa.

These are not my pictures.

The James Turrell Skyspace

Cameron and went to see this a few weeks ago and it was absolutely amazing. I would like to go to the sunrise show sometime. Here is a description from the website:
"Constructed of grass, concrete, stone and composite steel, the structure is equipped with an LED light sequence that projects onto the ceiling and through an aperture in the 72-foot square knife-edge roof just before sunrise and at sunset. Turrell's composition of light compliments the natural light present at twilight, and transforms the skyspace into a locale for experiencing beauty and reflective interactions with the surrounding campus and the natural world"

Holiday Card from Rice University

More Dogs in the Library

Here are a few pictures I took on Saturday.

Dogs in the Library

Happy Birthday Rice!

Nice article about Rice from the Houston Chronicle: http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Rice-University-celebrates-100-3925035.php

And More Owls

Rice Owls (part 4)

Tommy LaVergne took this picture of the 3 little owls on the Rice campus.

Rice Owls (part 3)

Rice Owls (part 2)

And then there were 2.

Rice Owls

With the help of the circ staff, I found this little owl right outside of the Fondren Library this morning.

The Texas Bowl 2008

Tonight I went to the Texas Bowl at Reliant Stadium where Rice played Western Michigan University. I went with a group of people from the Rice Library. It was a fun night with beautiful weather and so they left the roof open the entire game. Rice won 38 to 14 so that was nice. I sat next to my friend Keith (aka Kee) not knowing until tonight what a huge and very loud fan he is of football. He was a hoot (pun intended). I took a few pictures just to prove that I was really there.

Baker 13

When I went to work today at the Fondren Library I noticed that one of the huge windows in the front was boarded up. Since last night was Halloween I knew that one of the Baker 13 had probably tried to leave a body print on the glass last night and had broken the glass. A few years ago a student did the same thing to one of the glass doors in the front of the library. I found out that the student last night was trying to leave a butt print on the window. Luckily, no one was hurt, including the student sitting at the desk directly under the window. I was told that there were huge shards of glass hanging in the window after the event. For those of you who don't know, Baker 13 is a tradition at Rice involving naked students and shaving cream. On the 13th and 31st of every month, or the 26th if there is no 31st, students wear only shoes and shaving cream and run around campus leaving shaving cream impressions of their bodies on buildings around campus while others throw water balloons at them. The Halloween run usually attracts the greatest number of runners.

Here is a picture I found on Flickr of the Baker 13.

Farmers Markets

Here is a neat little graph showing the increase in Farmers Markets over the last few years.

Rice has a really nice farmers market on Tuesday afternoons from 3:30-7 in the stadium parking lot. There is one vendor who sells delicious gelato. I know this because my Ike evacuee brought some home last week. Here is a link to the website:

http://www.houstonfarmersmarket.org/

Baker Shakespeare

Last night I went to see Shakespeare's Richard III at Baker College at Rice. Baker Shakespeare began in 1970 and is Houston's oldest continuous Shakespeare festival. All performances are staged in the Baker Commons with actors and crew from all of the residential colleges.
My friend Alice played Queen Margaret. I have seen her in two other performances at Rice but this was the first time she played a major character and the first time I was able to see how truly talented she is. Alice is the serials cataloger for Fondren Library and when she's not busy working or acting she also plays the piano, sings, and dances.
Here is a description of the play from the Baker website:

"William Shakespeare's Richard the Third dramatizes the rise and fall of one of the most sinister figures in English history, the evil King Richard. Shakespeare uses the occult to finally unhinge his nearly conscience-less villain, but the sinister forces at work infuse all of the players in this political drama with fear and guilt.
A gaping maw in the center of the stage dominates much of the action, a pit marking the boundary between this world and the next, into which all of the characters eventually tumble as they spiral closer and closer to destruction.
One of the most famous histories, this version of Richard the Third disconnects the action from time, leaving it floating between eras as characters remain eerily trapped in an ancient mindset from which they cannot break - until enough mutual hate has focused on Richard to clear away the numerous other vendettas among the characters. An angel of death figure haunts Richard and the stage, showing the blood left in the wake of Richard's relentless ambition. This personal look at the characters of history, the fear in every heart and the blood on every pair of hands, questions the simple dichotomy of blame used throughout the play without forgiving in the least the ruthless murder of brothers, allies, and nephews Richard gleefully orchestrates. A modern look at an old story, this history will come alive and send shivers down your spine."

There will be more performances next week and the tickets are only $10.00. For more information see www.rice.edu/bakershake