THAT is a bottle of Prado Enea Muga 1982 a Rioja Gran Reserva that we’ve had for years. We had very good reasons to open it. We just won our fifth TSA design award! It was GREAT, both the wine and the winning:-)

Thanks, Texas Society of Architects. Jurors were Philip Freelon, FAIA, president of the Freelon Group in Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Mary Margaret Jones, FASLA, president of San Francisco-based landscape architecture firm Hargreaves Associates; and Rick Joy, AIA, founding principal of Rick Joy Architects in Tucson, Ariz. (Rick Joy, oh man!)

The awarded project was, again, the Wolfe Den.

Only two Austin projects were awarded at this state level this year… what a tough, tough jury! It can really be a lottery… the rest of the awarded firms/projects were in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.

Let me tell you, we were not counting on this one. The Austin design awards were tough competition already and we saw oodles of nice work there, so we were not counting on a TSA award this year, especially with MR Joy in the jury, we know just how demanding he is! Because he can.

So we’re opening wine bottles and other things:-) We were also celebrating my upcoming exhibition in Palo Alto.

And we have great news on the horizon, I think. So stay tuned! Time to celebrate and smile after all the hard work and paltry times.