Ernie's; Pre-committee meeting; Comics with Will; Burgers and Volcano; Committee meeting; Sticking it; Islands; Beer and cigars
4/24
Char had polished off his committee meeting earlier in the day and so he wanted to go out and get some drinks. Mine wasn't taken care of yet, but I saw no reason to let that get in the way of things. He, Will, and Samara were up at Ernie's on Banks, which is a place that I've always found rather charming, so I went and joined them.
We had a niced time, but one of the negatives of the construction of Ernie's is that there's a a small downstairs area with its own bar, a much larger upstairs area with its own bar, and then a nice balcony attached to the upstairs. On slow nights (which seems to be all fo them), they close down the upstairs bar, and for whatever strange reason this necessitates them closing the balcony as well, which is a shame since it's a nice little place to hang out, with a nice view of the museum district and the park across the street. Oh well.
4/25
My committee member M., who is Graham/Char/Jeff/Tiffany's PI, couldn't make it to my actual meeting, so I drove over to U of H to meet with him. As always he was engaging, interested, and helpful, and, as Graham and Char have observed about him in the past, he seemed to know what I was doing better than I dod.
4/26
Will and I have, once a month or so, taken to leaving work a little early on Wednesdays (meaning between 5 and 6 instead of after 6) and hitting the comic shop. So we did that. Will wanted to do dinner, but Cindy and I had already made plans towards that end, so I bid him adieu.
We had for a while talked about going out with the express purpose of getting burgers, and had declared that this would be the occasion for it. We settled on Becks Prime, which I had always thought would be more of a sit down place a la Fudrucker's (probably from the "prime" in the name), but turned out to have a fairly standard fast food setup (albeit with a deck that would be very nice if not for all of the Kirby traffic going by mere yards away, and all of the drive through orders occuring mere feet away).
But who cares about atmosphere? It's the burgers that count, and they had us covered. The meat was quite flavorful. Nothing else really stood out, but when the taste of your burgers is that good, I guess it doesn't have to. Good stuff. I need to make a return trip sometime soon.
Cindy's friend Reika had just finished her qualifying exam that day and was celebrating at the Volcano, so we went and had a round. I was excited about introducing Cindy to the strawberry basil margarita, but ours that night were quite substandard, which was a damn shame (especially for such a pricey drink). I selected a Pim's cup for my next drink, which includes the british pim's liquor (a relative of gin, or so the interwebs tell me), and the interesting combination of ginger ale and fresh cucumber slices. I had remembered Molly's being good when we went to the Volcano that one time, but I found it disappointing that particular night. Maybe it was good with the first sip but not drinkable enough to last through and entire drink. I forget.
4/27
This time, I actually got down to business and got ready for the committee meeting (well, eventually).
4/28
It was committee meeting day. I hadn't planned to do snacks, but caved at the last minute and picked up a dozen cookies and bottled water from the Coffee Corner (cost: $10). The meeting itself went fine. In contrast with the meeting with M. on Tuesday, no one really had anything helpful to say, but neither did they kick my ass over everything, so it was a success over all.
Our student lecture was afterwards. This is what happens when I get bored:
One of my committee members sent me an e-mail that afternoon to resign. We're required to have one member outside of the department, and the boss had suggested R., on the strength of his being "a smart guy". But apparently "smart" and "intellectually curious about subjects outside of one's immediate field of expertise" are two different qualities, as he complained that what was going on was not anything he knew anything about, and rather than, say, try to understand and offer criticism from the perspective of an outsider, he chose the path of laziness. The boss was "disappointed in him", for what that was worth.
Will had sold me (and a rather large group) on the idea of seeing Stick It. I had fond memories of watching Bring It On one summer during college with David and Win (as part of a triple feature also including Bullworth and Barton Fink), finishing the evening with that particular movie (selected on the strength of Win's argument that it contained "so many cheerleaders") at around 4:00 in the morning. Consequently, I agreed. Cindy followed suit.
What we didn't realize was that it was all a rather large conspiracy on Will's part to make Char see it and be miserable, which was effective in the end. For my part, I had thrown back a few shots before leaving the house, so I think I was best able to appreciate the film, though I sobered up towards the end. The coup de grace was, however, the crowd, which consisted almost entirely of tweens and teens. I found them amusing enough in my state, but I was probably the only one.
Afterwards we went to the Tavern on West Gray. Cindy drove so I proceeded to get my drunkeness back. Jeff came out with us, which was a rare occasion. Char had left. Val, for her part, spent her time up at the bar getting hit on. Will and Samara chatted. It was a pretty good time.
I have a vague recollection that maybe Cindy and I went for some food afterwards, but I can't recall specifics and I think that odds are, it didn't happen.
4/29
Having seen one good Unicorns show (May 2004 in NY) and one bad Unicorns show (their final one, in Houston, December 2004), I might have been a little concerned about how it would turn out having 2/3 of the Unicorns on stage for the Islands' show at Walter's, but given the strength of their excellent album, I really wasn't.
Cindy and I showed up at Walter's, made our way to the nice little spot between the bar and the far wall, had some drinks with Dan and Kristin, and settled in for the show. The band was big, multi-instrumented, and dressed all in white, all of which were reminiscent of the Polyphonic Spree. They marched in from the parking lot to the stage and a theatrical style, which was a nice little gimmick. Also, they get points for being the first band I've ever seen to incorporate a bass clarinet. The show was very high energy, and I had a great time.
4/30
Char called me up and was interested in getting some beer and smoking some cigars. He suggested we make a return trip to Han's Bier Haus, a notion that I seconded on the strengths of the place the first time around. It's a nice little joint, laid back, good selection, open-aired. We sat at the patio out front. Char had picked up a pack of Backwoods cigars, which are a nice small size for casual smoking—so, of course, we went through the entire pack. For such a cheap cigar, it's a very plesant, laid back, and pretty much unobjectionable smokable. We also had some good beer (Pyramid Apricot) and some cheap beer (Lonestar, a surprisingly good cigar companion), and had a nice chat.
Char had polished off his committee meeting earlier in the day and so he wanted to go out and get some drinks. Mine wasn't taken care of yet, but I saw no reason to let that get in the way of things. He, Will, and Samara were up at Ernie's on Banks, which is a place that I've always found rather charming, so I went and joined them.
We had a niced time, but one of the negatives of the construction of Ernie's is that there's a a small downstairs area with its own bar, a much larger upstairs area with its own bar, and then a nice balcony attached to the upstairs. On slow nights (which seems to be all fo them), they close down the upstairs bar, and for whatever strange reason this necessitates them closing the balcony as well, which is a shame since it's a nice little place to hang out, with a nice view of the museum district and the park across the street. Oh well.
4/25
My committee member M., who is Graham/Char/Jeff/Tiffany's PI, couldn't make it to my actual meeting, so I drove over to U of H to meet with him. As always he was engaging, interested, and helpful, and, as Graham and Char have observed about him in the past, he seemed to know what I was doing better than I dod.
4/26
Will and I have, once a month or so, taken to leaving work a little early on Wednesdays (meaning between 5 and 6 instead of after 6) and hitting the comic shop. So we did that. Will wanted to do dinner, but Cindy and I had already made plans towards that end, so I bid him adieu.
We had for a while talked about going out with the express purpose of getting burgers, and had declared that this would be the occasion for it. We settled on Becks Prime, which I had always thought would be more of a sit down place a la Fudrucker's (probably from the "prime" in the name), but turned out to have a fairly standard fast food setup (albeit with a deck that would be very nice if not for all of the Kirby traffic going by mere yards away, and all of the drive through orders occuring mere feet away).
But who cares about atmosphere? It's the burgers that count, and they had us covered. The meat was quite flavorful. Nothing else really stood out, but when the taste of your burgers is that good, I guess it doesn't have to. Good stuff. I need to make a return trip sometime soon.
Cindy's friend Reika had just finished her qualifying exam that day and was celebrating at the Volcano, so we went and had a round. I was excited about introducing Cindy to the strawberry basil margarita, but ours that night were quite substandard, which was a damn shame (especially for such a pricey drink). I selected a Pim's cup for my next drink, which includes the british pim's liquor (a relative of gin, or so the interwebs tell me), and the interesting combination of ginger ale and fresh cucumber slices. I had remembered Molly's being good when we went to the Volcano that one time, but I found it disappointing that particular night. Maybe it was good with the first sip but not drinkable enough to last through and entire drink. I forget.
4/27
This time, I actually got down to business and got ready for the committee meeting (well, eventually).
4/28
It was committee meeting day. I hadn't planned to do snacks, but caved at the last minute and picked up a dozen cookies and bottled water from the Coffee Corner (cost: $10). The meeting itself went fine. In contrast with the meeting with M. on Tuesday, no one really had anything helpful to say, but neither did they kick my ass over everything, so it was a success over all.
Our student lecture was afterwards. This is what happens when I get bored:
One of my committee members sent me an e-mail that afternoon to resign. We're required to have one member outside of the department, and the boss had suggested R., on the strength of his being "a smart guy". But apparently "smart" and "intellectually curious about subjects outside of one's immediate field of expertise" are two different qualities, as he complained that what was going on was not anything he knew anything about, and rather than, say, try to understand and offer criticism from the perspective of an outsider, he chose the path of laziness. The boss was "disappointed in him", for what that was worth.
Will had sold me (and a rather large group) on the idea of seeing Stick It. I had fond memories of watching Bring It On one summer during college with David and Win (as part of a triple feature also including Bullworth and Barton Fink), finishing the evening with that particular movie (selected on the strength of Win's argument that it contained "so many cheerleaders") at around 4:00 in the morning. Consequently, I agreed. Cindy followed suit.
What we didn't realize was that it was all a rather large conspiracy on Will's part to make Char see it and be miserable, which was effective in the end. For my part, I had thrown back a few shots before leaving the house, so I think I was best able to appreciate the film, though I sobered up towards the end. The coup de grace was, however, the crowd, which consisted almost entirely of tweens and teens. I found them amusing enough in my state, but I was probably the only one.
Afterwards we went to the Tavern on West Gray. Cindy drove so I proceeded to get my drunkeness back. Jeff came out with us, which was a rare occasion. Char had left. Val, for her part, spent her time up at the bar getting hit on. Will and Samara chatted. It was a pretty good time.
I have a vague recollection that maybe Cindy and I went for some food afterwards, but I can't recall specifics and I think that odds are, it didn't happen.
4/29
Having seen one good Unicorns show (May 2004 in NY) and one bad Unicorns show (their final one, in Houston, December 2004), I might have been a little concerned about how it would turn out having 2/3 of the Unicorns on stage for the Islands' show at Walter's, but given the strength of their excellent album, I really wasn't.
Cindy and I showed up at Walter's, made our way to the nice little spot between the bar and the far wall, had some drinks with Dan and Kristin, and settled in for the show. The band was big, multi-instrumented, and dressed all in white, all of which were reminiscent of the Polyphonic Spree. They marched in from the parking lot to the stage and a theatrical style, which was a nice little gimmick. Also, they get points for being the first band I've ever seen to incorporate a bass clarinet. The show was very high energy, and I had a great time.
4/30
Char called me up and was interested in getting some beer and smoking some cigars. He suggested we make a return trip to Han's Bier Haus, a notion that I seconded on the strengths of the place the first time around. It's a nice little joint, laid back, good selection, open-aired. We sat at the patio out front. Char had picked up a pack of Backwoods cigars, which are a nice small size for casual smoking—so, of course, we went through the entire pack. For such a cheap cigar, it's a very plesant, laid back, and pretty much unobjectionable smokable. We also had some good beer (Pyramid Apricot) and some cheap beer (Lonestar, a surprisingly good cigar companion), and had a nice chat.
posted by L. Maxwell Ward at 6:18 PM
