School bullshit and retail therapy; Car retrieval; Molé black & tan; Two Gallants; Easter
4/10
So I gave my lab meeting, only to discover that the boss was in a particularly difficult mood, and decided to make an example out of me by making me represent lab meeting the following week. He assured me it was nothing personal; I assured him that I found that hard to believe when I was the one it happened to.
So I happened to have a gift certificate to Best Buy and decided on a little retail therapy. Unfortunately, they didn't have the games, CDs, or DVDs I wanted (continuing evidence of the declining usefulness of brick & mortar electronics retail). I ended up with a new spool of speaker wire and banana connectors that I needed for when some of my new toys arrived. Additionally, the speakers I have in my bedroom were wired using some ancient cable I had that had oxidized quite a bit (the copper was turning blue), and was also too short to begin with, so I got went ahead and tackled that project and ended up with something that was, if nothing else, much more neat and pretty than it had been.
4/11
My car had taken a few days longer than expected, but when the rental car's paid for and doesn't suck, it's not really that big of a deal. At the time, though, I didn't realize that insurance would cover the "upgrade" to the bigger car, so I was glad to get the good ol' 3 back. It took me a few minutes to adjust to, but it was ultimately good to have my zippy and maneuverable little car back.
4/12
Thom had sent me three bottles of Rogue Chipotle Ale. One I had consumed almost immediately; one I saved to split with Cindy. I was excited about trying a pepper ale, but found that the spiciness and pepper flavor wasn't really noticeable. The smokiness of the chipotle, however, was, and as the beer got warmer, it became overpowering.
Anyway, the Rogue web site had suggested combining the beer with their chocolate stout to make a "molé black and tan". Cindy and I didn't prepare enough in advance to pick up Rogue's chocolate stout, and so settled for the Young's variety. The combination was quite good, actually, and I really preferred it to the chipotle ale alone.
4/13
Jeff and I had, rather randomly, happened upon one of Two Gallants' previous shows in Houston and were delighted and surprised. We had missed their next Houston engagement (out of sheer laziness), so we made sure to catch this one. I actually didn't enjoy it as much as their first show that I saw. I dont' know whether they lacked the element of surprise, or whether the playing was sloppier, or whether the weaker material of their new albumw as a problem, but there you go. Still, the rock stomp of their clever, folky songs is always worth something. I snuck out before they came on to make a call and wish Becca a happy birthday.
4/14
I stayed late in Houston, hoping desperately that UPS would show up with my new subwoofer so that I could either play with it, or at least have it to play with when I returned, but to no avail. I left at 4:00, which was pretty much the last possible moment to leave to make it to dinner at 7:00 in Waco. The sub arrived at 5:00. Bastards.
I was to meet up with my parents and the Hoffmans for dinner at the Claypot (formerly Le Café, a name that I kind of liked). I somehow managed to be early, got a table, took a sugggestion from the cute waitress (a bit Bethany Perryman, that one) and tried the ginger hot tea. I almost made it through the pot by the time they arrived, which was no surprise given how good it was with a bit of a ginger bite to it, and sweetened with evaporated milk.
I have some nostalgia about the place, and was always fond of their jalapeño clay pot, but I hadn't been there since my senior year of college, let alone since my recent foray into Vietnamese food. Still, nostalgia won out and I went for the clay pot, but also ordered a cup of phó because, well, that's how you judge Viet cuisine, right? Since I ordered the cup, what I basically got was just the broth, which was all I really needed. It was very flavorful, with a little something extra that I couldn't figure out.
The claypot itslef wasn't quite as strongly seasoned as I remembered, but still quite tasy, and as a bonus, everybody was impressed with my new chopstick skills. We all had a nice meal; Becca showed up from Austin after we had all finished, but we waited on her to eat.
We returned to the Casa de Ward for a bit, and then Becca and I went out on the town. I had wanted to check out Cricket's, but the line was out the door, so we had a round at Bogart's. By the time we finished up there, things had thankfully cleared out at Cricket's enough that we coudl go grab a couple of rounds there.
4/15
I had ordered a new computer for Dad to replace the one that he had picked up around 1998 for his Office and then later adopted at home. It took quite a bit of my day (and most of my evening) to figure out the ins and outs of getting things like e-mail transferred over to the new Dell, getting software installed, and so forth.
In between, we did a bit of shopping. I took Becca to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to pick out her birthday present: a chef's knife. Dad cooked crawfish for most of the family for dinner, but grilled up a NY strip for me with a nice wine sauce.
4/16
We did the whole church thing for Easter, and then Rebecca and I took a detour to check out the wonders of the Waco sinkhole:
(Edit: People have asked for more info. Here's the Trib's sinkhole blog—yeah, you read that right, though it doesn't seem to have taken off. I'll try to add some more comprehensive links. The weekend after it happened (first of March?) they ran a full front page on it. It was a big deal.)
Afterwards, we returned home for a rather rushed lunch with the Hoffmans of baked potatoes from Uncle Dan's. I hurried off as quickly as possible, intending to return to Houston before the leasing office closed for the day. I made it, but discovered that the leasing office had closed for Easter. Bastards.
So I hoped for a while, probably watched some DVR, and then went up to school to work on that damnable lab meeting presentation.
So I gave my lab meeting, only to discover that the boss was in a particularly difficult mood, and decided to make an example out of me by making me represent lab meeting the following week. He assured me it was nothing personal; I assured him that I found that hard to believe when I was the one it happened to.
So I happened to have a gift certificate to Best Buy and decided on a little retail therapy. Unfortunately, they didn't have the games, CDs, or DVDs I wanted (continuing evidence of the declining usefulness of brick & mortar electronics retail). I ended up with a new spool of speaker wire and banana connectors that I needed for when some of my new toys arrived. Additionally, the speakers I have in my bedroom were wired using some ancient cable I had that had oxidized quite a bit (the copper was turning blue), and was also too short to begin with, so I got went ahead and tackled that project and ended up with something that was, if nothing else, much more neat and pretty than it had been.
4/11
My car had taken a few days longer than expected, but when the rental car's paid for and doesn't suck, it's not really that big of a deal. At the time, though, I didn't realize that insurance would cover the "upgrade" to the bigger car, so I was glad to get the good ol' 3 back. It took me a few minutes to adjust to, but it was ultimately good to have my zippy and maneuverable little car back.
4/12
Thom had sent me three bottles of Rogue Chipotle Ale. One I had consumed almost immediately; one I saved to split with Cindy. I was excited about trying a pepper ale, but found that the spiciness and pepper flavor wasn't really noticeable. The smokiness of the chipotle, however, was, and as the beer got warmer, it became overpowering.
Anyway, the Rogue web site had suggested combining the beer with their chocolate stout to make a "molé black and tan". Cindy and I didn't prepare enough in advance to pick up Rogue's chocolate stout, and so settled for the Young's variety. The combination was quite good, actually, and I really preferred it to the chipotle ale alone.
4/13
Jeff and I had, rather randomly, happened upon one of Two Gallants' previous shows in Houston and were delighted and surprised. We had missed their next Houston engagement (out of sheer laziness), so we made sure to catch this one. I actually didn't enjoy it as much as their first show that I saw. I dont' know whether they lacked the element of surprise, or whether the playing was sloppier, or whether the weaker material of their new albumw as a problem, but there you go. Still, the rock stomp of their clever, folky songs is always worth something. I snuck out before they came on to make a call and wish Becca a happy birthday.
4/14
I stayed late in Houston, hoping desperately that UPS would show up with my new subwoofer so that I could either play with it, or at least have it to play with when I returned, but to no avail. I left at 4:00, which was pretty much the last possible moment to leave to make it to dinner at 7:00 in Waco. The sub arrived at 5:00. Bastards.
I was to meet up with my parents and the Hoffmans for dinner at the Claypot (formerly Le Café, a name that I kind of liked). I somehow managed to be early, got a table, took a sugggestion from the cute waitress (a bit Bethany Perryman, that one) and tried the ginger hot tea. I almost made it through the pot by the time they arrived, which was no surprise given how good it was with a bit of a ginger bite to it, and sweetened with evaporated milk.
I have some nostalgia about the place, and was always fond of their jalapeño clay pot, but I hadn't been there since my senior year of college, let alone since my recent foray into Vietnamese food. Still, nostalgia won out and I went for the clay pot, but also ordered a cup of phó because, well, that's how you judge Viet cuisine, right? Since I ordered the cup, what I basically got was just the broth, which was all I really needed. It was very flavorful, with a little something extra that I couldn't figure out.
The claypot itslef wasn't quite as strongly seasoned as I remembered, but still quite tasy, and as a bonus, everybody was impressed with my new chopstick skills. We all had a nice meal; Becca showed up from Austin after we had all finished, but we waited on her to eat.
We returned to the Casa de Ward for a bit, and then Becca and I went out on the town. I had wanted to check out Cricket's, but the line was out the door, so we had a round at Bogart's. By the time we finished up there, things had thankfully cleared out at Cricket's enough that we coudl go grab a couple of rounds there.
4/15
I had ordered a new computer for Dad to replace the one that he had picked up around 1998 for his Office and then later adopted at home. It took quite a bit of my day (and most of my evening) to figure out the ins and outs of getting things like e-mail transferred over to the new Dell, getting software installed, and so forth.
In between, we did a bit of shopping. I took Becca to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to pick out her birthday present: a chef's knife. Dad cooked crawfish for most of the family for dinner, but grilled up a NY strip for me with a nice wine sauce.
4/16
We did the whole church thing for Easter, and then Rebecca and I took a detour to check out the wonders of the Waco sinkhole:
(Edit: People have asked for more info. Here's the Trib's sinkhole blog—yeah, you read that right, though it doesn't seem to have taken off. I'll try to add some more comprehensive links. The weekend after it happened (first of March?) they ran a full front page on it. It was a big deal.)
Afterwards, we returned home for a rather rushed lunch with the Hoffmans of baked potatoes from Uncle Dan's. I hurried off as quickly as possible, intending to return to Houston before the leasing office closed for the day. I made it, but discovered that the leasing office had closed for Easter. Bastards.
So I hoped for a while, probably watched some DVR, and then went up to school to work on that damnable lab meeting presentation.
posted by L. Maxwell Ward at 2:14 AM
