Car and Rudyard's; Ginger Man; School bullshit; Dinner/Movie; Barbecue
4/4
So after talking to my insurance agent, I had resolved to get my car repaired. I could do so for the cost of half of my deductible (since my "accident" involved an "uninsured driver"), and State Farm (they may not be the cheapest, but you get what you pay for) would provide a rental car for me. I called the Mazda dealership here that I like and got their recommendation on a body shop.
I took the morning off, dropped off my car, got picked up by Enterprise, and waited while they worked things out with my insurance company (which I really thought they would have taken care of the previous day when they wer supposed to have been contacted by the body shop, but my expectations were too high), and was eventually offered my choice of two Daimler Chrysler vehicles: a Jeep something, and a Dodge Charger.
The choice was obvious: it was time to play Wards of Hazard. I took the Charger and headed back to my apartment.
This seems as good a time as any to talk about the car itself. It was a big, four door beast of a thing, and it felt like it too—the steering was much looser than I would have liked from a "performance car" and reminded me of driving Dad's old Ford LTD.
Obviously, Enterprise didn't have the version with a Hemi, but instead the more practically priced six cylinder version. Accerlation initially seemed unimpressive, but probably was, in reality. The power was there when I needed it, but never really felt like it was there. The thrill of acceleration was missing.
Except for in the audible department, where the engine performed beautifully. It roared when you told it to, and even if you couldn't really feel the power kick in, you could certainly hear it. It was a big, deep, throaty sound. I think the Mazda sounds pretty good for an ecconomy car, particularly at higher RPMs, but it couldn't compete with this.
Exterior styling was nice, but too overly macho for my tastes, though I'm sure that's true of pretty much anythind Dodge makes. That's their schtick. Interior styling was absolutely, disgustingly dull. Again I though of an old 80s sedan like the Ford LTD.
But hey, it's better than getting a Neon or something.
Anyway, since I had the wheels, I figured I'd use them and went up to Rudyard's for a couple of rounds with Dan &c.
4/5
Inspired by our recent trip to the Saucer, Cindy and I attempted to check out free pint glass night at the Ginger Man, only to discover that the glasses are usually all given away before 6:00 in the evening. We had some beer anyway. I think that might have been the time when we tried some of Lindeman's lambic beers, which I like for their very fresh-tasting fruit flavors. I think I also tried New Belgium's Bier de Mars, which is also apparently a lambic, but in the more traditional sense of being a wheat beer fermented by wild yeast, rather than the more fruity Lindeman's version. I found it to be quite tasty as well.
4/7
I had to give a departmental seminar to the students in the program, which was a pain in the ass. It was pretty much the same talk as last year, and one guy in particular, who's a bit of a dick about asking questions like "Why is this interesting?" and "What's the point?" and that sort of thing—questions that aren't essential to the understanding of the presentation, but only serve to make my life more difficult; the type of things that would be fine for a one-on-one post-presentation discussion. The talk went long; people got bored. Blame the asshole in the corner back there.
Will and I went and saw "Thank You For Smoking." I think we probably had dinner first, but the location of said dinner eludes me. The movie was thoroughly entertaining with an unbelievably good cast—the kind that bursts at the seems and makes everyone seem underused. Also, give it credits for not going for the easy, feel good ending where the protagonist lets his conscience get the better of him and he sees the error of his ways. Nope; moral ambiguity permeated the thing in a beautiful way.
4/8
My notes would seem to indicate that I did nothing this Saturday night, which seems unlikely, but then again, it's plausible since I was in the middle of my Prince of Persia addiction at the time.
4/9
Dan decided to host a good ol' fashioned Sunday afternoon barbecue, so Cindy made a salad, we picked up some sides from Goode Co.: beans (their pintos, inferior to their transcendent Austin baked beans), jalapeño cheddar bread (I've never had better), and BBQ sauce (lackluster). We stopped by Kroger for salad dressing, Stubb's BBQ sauce (far superior to Goode Co.), and beer, where we selected Pyramid Apricot Ale (something I'm quite fond of) and PBR.
Dan had quite a crew gathered. Here's a link to photos from the BBQ. I ate myself into a thorough food coma, consuming way too much brisket, salad (to Cindy's credit, a hit), pickels, jalapeños, and jalapeño bread. There was watermelon, too. And lots of beer. And good company and good times. And I think I caught a brief nap on Dan's couch.
We eventually left, as I neded to prepare for lab meeting the next day, but not until after I managed a real nap. Then it was off to school for that annoying night-before work that I hate so much...
So after talking to my insurance agent, I had resolved to get my car repaired. I could do so for the cost of half of my deductible (since my "accident" involved an "uninsured driver"), and State Farm (they may not be the cheapest, but you get what you pay for) would provide a rental car for me. I called the Mazda dealership here that I like and got their recommendation on a body shop.
I took the morning off, dropped off my car, got picked up by Enterprise, and waited while they worked things out with my insurance company (which I really thought they would have taken care of the previous day when they wer supposed to have been contacted by the body shop, but my expectations were too high), and was eventually offered my choice of two Daimler Chrysler vehicles: a Jeep something, and a Dodge Charger.
The choice was obvious: it was time to play Wards of Hazard. I took the Charger and headed back to my apartment.
This seems as good a time as any to talk about the car itself. It was a big, four door beast of a thing, and it felt like it too—the steering was much looser than I would have liked from a "performance car" and reminded me of driving Dad's old Ford LTD.
Obviously, Enterprise didn't have the version with a Hemi, but instead the more practically priced six cylinder version. Accerlation initially seemed unimpressive, but probably was, in reality. The power was there when I needed it, but never really felt like it was there. The thrill of acceleration was missing.
Except for in the audible department, where the engine performed beautifully. It roared when you told it to, and even if you couldn't really feel the power kick in, you could certainly hear it. It was a big, deep, throaty sound. I think the Mazda sounds pretty good for an ecconomy car, particularly at higher RPMs, but it couldn't compete with this.
Exterior styling was nice, but too overly macho for my tastes, though I'm sure that's true of pretty much anythind Dodge makes. That's their schtick. Interior styling was absolutely, disgustingly dull. Again I though of an old 80s sedan like the Ford LTD.
But hey, it's better than getting a Neon or something.
Anyway, since I had the wheels, I figured I'd use them and went up to Rudyard's for a couple of rounds with Dan &c.
4/5
Inspired by our recent trip to the Saucer, Cindy and I attempted to check out free pint glass night at the Ginger Man, only to discover that the glasses are usually all given away before 6:00 in the evening. We had some beer anyway. I think that might have been the time when we tried some of Lindeman's lambic beers, which I like for their very fresh-tasting fruit flavors. I think I also tried New Belgium's Bier de Mars, which is also apparently a lambic, but in the more traditional sense of being a wheat beer fermented by wild yeast, rather than the more fruity Lindeman's version. I found it to be quite tasty as well.
4/7
I had to give a departmental seminar to the students in the program, which was a pain in the ass. It was pretty much the same talk as last year, and one guy in particular, who's a bit of a dick about asking questions like "Why is this interesting?" and "What's the point?" and that sort of thing—questions that aren't essential to the understanding of the presentation, but only serve to make my life more difficult; the type of things that would be fine for a one-on-one post-presentation discussion. The talk went long; people got bored. Blame the asshole in the corner back there.
Will and I went and saw "Thank You For Smoking." I think we probably had dinner first, but the location of said dinner eludes me. The movie was thoroughly entertaining with an unbelievably good cast—the kind that bursts at the seems and makes everyone seem underused. Also, give it credits for not going for the easy, feel good ending where the protagonist lets his conscience get the better of him and he sees the error of his ways. Nope; moral ambiguity permeated the thing in a beautiful way.
4/8
My notes would seem to indicate that I did nothing this Saturday night, which seems unlikely, but then again, it's plausible since I was in the middle of my Prince of Persia addiction at the time.
4/9
Dan decided to host a good ol' fashioned Sunday afternoon barbecue, so Cindy made a salad, we picked up some sides from Goode Co.: beans (their pintos, inferior to their transcendent Austin baked beans), jalapeño cheddar bread (I've never had better), and BBQ sauce (lackluster). We stopped by Kroger for salad dressing, Stubb's BBQ sauce (far superior to Goode Co.), and beer, where we selected Pyramid Apricot Ale (something I'm quite fond of) and PBR.
Dan had quite a crew gathered. Here's a link to photos from the BBQ. I ate myself into a thorough food coma, consuming way too much brisket, salad (to Cindy's credit, a hit), pickels, jalapeños, and jalapeño bread. There was watermelon, too. And lots of beer. And good company and good times. And I think I caught a brief nap on Dan's couch.
We eventually left, as I neded to prepare for lab meeting the next day, but not until after I managed a real nap. Then it was off to school for that annoying night-before work that I hate so much...
posted by L. Maxwell Ward at 11:17 AM
