2003 Year in Review Intro New Years The Family The House The Auction Final Four Europe The Dog The Fall Conclusion

Greetings,

Can y'all believe it? You may have actually received a Christmas Postcard from the Owan family residing in Austin, Texas! After a several year hiatus from being able to mail out Christmas Cards to family and friends, we are finally back to a more normal and stable everyday life and have found the time and opportunity.

You might ask, "What happened in the past couple of years that prevented the annual mailing ritual?" Well, I am glad you asked! My good friend Glenn made a comment one day a while back…"You are the only person I know that has moved into the same house three times!" Read the section on "The House" and maybe it will give some insight.

I have divided the 2003 Owan Family Review into sections for your reading pleasure. I certainly don't expect everyone to read this in its entirety. It can get a bit verbose at times. Feel free to skip around from section to section, or, if you aren't interested, skip the whole thing! I wanted to write something that would give those family and friends that we don't communicate with as much as we probably should a decent overview of what has been going on in our lives in Austin.

It has been quite a fun and exciting past year for our Family. Victoria and I started 2003 off with a trip to New Orleans for New Year's Eve. We stayed right down by the French Quarter, ate great food, and had a good time. Of course, it rained a lot while we were there, but, it always rains when I am in New Orleans!

Jordan had is 8th Birthday this past November 17th. He is now in the second grade at Lee Elementary. Jordan is active in Cub Scouts, soccer, basketball, and chess club. He goes to Hancock Recreation Center for after school care and regularly complains that we picked him up "too early" and interrupting his fun. He also participated in the Junior Golf Academy this past summer. His soccer team this fall only lost one game all season and won the championship tournament at the end of the season.

Victoria continues to work as a Property Manager. She finished up her course work this past year and is now a Certified Real Property Administrator (RPA). She has become much more active in our neighborhood. She helped form a Neighborhood Watch program in our area and is our Block captain. Victoria was also the coach of Jordan's soccer team this past fall. Victoria and all of her friends have a "girls night out" once a month.

I am still working for the City of Austin. I have now been working for the City for over 10 years. I continue to work as an Oracle Database Administrator and also as an Application Developer. I also volunteer as the Den Leader for Jordan's Cub Scout Den. I also got be the assistant soccer coach to Head Coach Victoria for Jordan's soccer team.

In order to accommodate our new 3 person family with our marriage in November of 2000, Victoria and I decided in the spring prior to our wedding to remodel my existing house originally built in 1952 and almost double the size of the house from 1100 square feet to over 2000 square feet. We hired a great local architect, Patrick Ousey of FAB Architecture. He did a tremendous job of designing our new modified central Austin home. We were excited and got several bids for the construction. Because of funding limitations due to the pending wedding in November of 2000, we decided to go with the low bid for the construction. I packed up all my belongings and stored them in multiple locations. Construction commenced in June of 2000 and was suppose to be complete in 4 to 5 months. Needless to say, it was not finished until the Spring of 2001. While it took a long time, the outcome was a fantastic new house. This would be the second time that I got to "move in" to my house.

Fast forward to December of 2001 when we noticed a big hump in the wood floors starting to form in our kitchen. What do you know, but we had a major plumbing leak. A big whole had to be cut in the middle of our kitchen floor so that the leak could be fixed. After a several month battle with our low bid contractor, we finally decided to make a claim on our insurance in order to get the house fixed. Our new contractor determined that our kitchen island would have to be dismantled in order to replace several cabinets, etc. that were damaged by the plumbing leak. The wood floor in the kitchen was also going to be redone. In order to fix the floor properly, it was determined that because the wood floors were continuous throughout the entire house, the only way to properly fix the problem was to refinish the floors throughout the entire house.

So, in the Summer of 2002, we had to pack up the entire house and move out so that the repairs could be done. We rented Victoria's boss's condo a few miles away. Her boss is Dutch and lives Amsterdam for the Summer and Fall. After all the work was done, we were able to move back into our house at the beginning of October in 2002. Once again, we had to "unpack" all of our belongings. This was the third time that I got to move back into the same house!

In February we headed up to Dallas for the annual charity auction at the elementary school where my Mother is the Principal. In Dallas, these are swanky events where people throw money around loosely. While our family spent some money, I was thrown for a loop when my Father purchased an autographed Willie Nelson guitar for a handsome sum of money. I didn't even know he liked Willie and I certainly know he doesn't know how to play the guitar. All in all, it was a lot of fun. Maybe I will get my Dad a Willie Nelson CD for Christmas this year!

It was an exciting year for basketball in Austin, Texas. Both men's and women's University of Texas basketball teams made it the Final Four. I am fortunate to have season tickets for the men's games. I was able to enjoy the Super Regional victories in San Antonio with my friends, Doug, Nancy, and Jay. It also happened that Marquette made it to the Final Four as well this past year. My father attended Marquette in Milwaukee along with several others in his family. I had made a deal with Victoria before we got married that no matter when it happened, or how much it cost, if Texas ever made it to the Final Four, I was going. This year, the event was in New Orleans, which is about a 10 hour drive from Austin. So, Victoria, my father, and myself got some tickets and headed to back to New Orleans for the second time in 4 months. Both Texas and Marquette ended up losing in the first round, which was disappointing. We had hoped at least one of our two teams would have been in the finals. Did I mention it rained a lot while we were in New Orleans for the Final Four! Once again, great food!

Victoria's boss lives in Amsterdam for part of the year and Austin the other part. He offered to fly Victoria, Jordan, and myself over to Europe this past summer to see their new home in Amsterdam and to have one last opportunity to stay in their Paris apartment before they sold it. This was our second trip in three years to Amsterdam and Paris. We decided to plan the trip so that we could be in Paris for the finish of the Tour de France and hopefully see our Austinite, Lance Armstrong, win his record tying fifth straight Tour. While in Holland, Victoria's Dutch counter part, Liesbeth and her husband, Willem took us to the Dutch version of an amusement Park called Efftling. The park was based on Fairy Tales. Her boss Robert also took us on a Tour of the countryside. It was absolutely beautiful.

After Amsterdam, we headed to Antwerp for a two day one night stay. We wanted to go to one City different from our previous trip. We stayed at the Hilton right in the heart of the old town square. We took a guided horse drawn tour and went to eat at the new "hip" restaurant in town, called the Pomp Haus. The "kids" meal was about $8 and consisted of a filet mignon, fries, and a salad. They don't make kid's meals like that here in the States! We also found the Pub where it was advertised that they sold the worlds "strongest" beer. Unfortunately, they were out and we had to settle for a brew that was only had about a 15% alcohol content. One was enough!

We took the high speed bullet train from Antwerp into Paris. The train travels in excess of 150 mph. This was a relaxed trip to Paris. Victoria and I had seen most of the tourist sites on our previous trip. Jordan loved playing at the playscape in the Luxemburg Gardens. It was amazing how kids that didn't know a common language would all just start playing together.

We also went to Disneyland Paris. I actually think that Victoria wanted to go more than Jordan. Victoria loves Disney! Prior to our trip, we were watching a Travel Channel special on Disneyland Paris. They have two parks in Paris, the regular Magical Kingdom, and a new Disney Studios theme park. They have a really cool show at the Studios park called the Stunt Show Spectacular. They race cars and motorcycles around and act like they are shooting a scene from a movie. We knew from watching the special that they would ask for volunteers from the audience of about 5000 people for the show. Victoria stated before our trip that she was going to get in that show. The French have a much different culture from us in the States and especially those from Texas. They are very reserved and don't smile much. They don't seem to laugh out loud too much or be very expressive with their emotions. Anyway, when the show started, they stated that they would be seeking volunteers a little later in the show. Well, Victoria immediately starts jumping up and down and screaming, "Pick me! Pick me!" The MC for the show immediately pointed to Victoria and said, "We aren't ready yet, but, when we do ask for volunteers, act just like the lady in the blue shirt!" Well, the French aren't much for jumping and screaming, so when the time came, there was no way they could not pick Victoria to be in the show. I got some good pictures of her in the middle of the action and on the big screen!

The morning of the final stage of the Tour de France, it was overcast and raining on and off. Prior to the race finale later that day, we took Jordan up in the Eiffel Tower. We then headed for the L'Avenue de Champs Elysees to see the final stage. We were decked out in our Texas Longhorn gear, including flags and foam hook'em fingers. We found some fellow Texans and joined them to watch the race. It was a long day. The French are socialist and it showed during an event like this. We had to stand on the side of the street for over 7 hours during this event. In the States, they would have all kinds of vendors selling drinks, food, etc. They would also put out portable toilets for the masses of people. Not in France! Not a single drink or food vendor! So your only choice was a overpriced sidewalk café. The only problem was that all the workers were watching the race and festivities as well and you could not order anything even if you wanted too! Anyway, Lance had wrapped up his fifth tour victory in the stage before. Thus, this was really more of a parade for him and his US Postal team. The racers did about 10 loops in front of us. On TV, it doesn't look like they are going that fast, but, it was quite difficult trying to time a picture as they went whizzing by on their bikes.

Shortly after returning home from our vacation in Europe, we had our traumatic event of the year. We came home from going out to dinner one evening and one of our dogs, Pete, laid in the middle of the back yard. We he got up to come greet us, he could not lift his right front leg. So, the next morning, I took him to the vet, where they were not able to determine any specific injury causing the paralysis. They gave me some steroids to treat him with and sent me home. By that evening he had lost the ability to use his rear legs as well. He couldn't walk or really move. We took him back to the vet, where he spent a week getting the attention he needed. The vet figured he had some sort of trauma to his spinal cord. After a week, he could stand, but, still couldn't walk on his own. We then took him to a specialist where the prognosis wasn't good. Victoria and I had to make a decision on whether to put him to sleep, or opt for back surgery, that may or may not work. Well, he was much too valuable of a member of our family to put him down, so we opted for the potential surgery. The specialist had to put him under and did a spinal tap and a milogram to determine the exact nature of the injury and the type of surgery that would be necessary.

Well, they were unable to find anything wrong. So the injury was still a mystery. They sent him home and he continued on his steroid regimen. He slowly gained the ability to walk on his own again, which was made even more difficult because of our wood floors. I had to build him a handicap ramp down the stairs of the deck so he could get into the backyard. For the first several weeks, I had to carry him in and out of the house. He has slowly gotten better. He is still not 100%, but, is now running and playing. He still stumbles and falls every once in a while, but, seems happier than ever. Probably because of all the extra attention he has gotten over the last 3 or 4 months.

Fall in Texas means football. Victoria and I have season football tickets with a group of 25 friends. We have a full blown all day tailgate before each game. These events have become quite large. Our tailgate neighbors, hornfans.com, are sponsered by New Belgium Brewing, Budweiser, and Earl Campbell Meats. This means plenty of free beer and food all for a small donation to the charitable cause of the week. We still use the 1976 Dodge Van that my parents bought back when we lived in Seattle for the tailgate parties. It serves as a place holder and a mobile storage unit. Our team lost a couple of games this year and fell short of playing for a National Championship, but, we still had a great time spending our Saturday afternoons with friends and family.

Another big event in Austin this year was the Austin City Limits Music Festival. We got to enjoy three solid days of music from tons of bands including REM, Dwight Yoakam, Pat Green, String Cheese Incident, etc. on 8 different stages. Victoria and I were also lucky to get the very elusive tickets to a taping of the Austin City Limits show this past fall. We got to see the taping of a band called "Guster". That show will be airing on January 10th on PBS. The studio only holds about 400 people, so you might even get a glimpse of us in the audience!

This past October, after one of our games, I was content to just hang at the tailgate and drink some beer. Victoria and I were in the process of shooting video clips to submit clips so we could try and get on "The Amazing Race", which is a TV reality show on CBS during the summer where 12 two person teams race around the globe and do stunts. It looked like a lot of fun and Jordan wanted us to try and get on the show. Anyway, Victoria wanted us to get some clips of us by the huge History Museum star a few blocks from our tailgate party. She insisted that I bring our entire cooler full of frosty cold adult beverages. I couldn't understand why I needed the entire cooler, but, I went along at the urging of some of our other friends. Well, when we got to the big Star, there was a Limo Van waiting to take about 20 of us out to the Salt Lick (which is about 20 miles from Austin) for some all you can eat BBQ. Of course, the place is BYOB, so this is why we needed the cooler! It was quite a surprise that all of my friends were able to keep this secret from me the entire day!

Well, we still haven't heard back from the "Amazing Race" people yet. Our friend, Steven, helped us edit our video clips into a three minute tape. He did a great job and I can't believe they haven't called us for an interview! Well, it will add to our entertainment this summer when we watch the show and complain about how they could have picked other couples over us!

2003 has been a great year filled with highs and lows, laughter and tears. We are fortunate to have such a great family and so many friends. We are thankful for everything that we have and for all those that we get to share our lives. We want to wish everyone a very Happy Holiday Season.

Hook 'em Horns!

Chris, Victoria, and Jordan

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