Proletariat; Midtown; Niko Niko's and Rudyard's

6/12

Another Monday night at the Prole. Maybe Dan DJed, maybe he didn't. Odds are good that pitchers of Shiner were consumed.

6/13

Surprisingly, mere days after his wedding, I got a text from Grambo about going out drinking. I arrived at the vastly overpriced Kimodo to find he, Char, the new wifey, and Angela's cousin. We had a few, but ultimately, due to Angela's distrust of Char around girls in general and her cousin specifically, she insisted that Graham join us for the rest of the evening... which, actually, was pretty much what we wanted.

While Graham took Angela back home, we made our way over to midtown Woodrow's, despite Char's concern that I didn't know where I was going. Graham met up with us, and it was tanker night, so we worked our way through a round before making for the Village. A round there, and I called it a night. Char eventually won some kind of moral victory against Angela by dropping Graham off before taking the cousin back to her parents' hotel room.

6/14

Cindy and I hit up Niko Niko's for dinner (mmm...) and then had a few beverages at Rudyard's.

Cooking & Review Preparation; Fajitas; Volcano & Woodrow's; Cars & Woodrow's; Wedding

6/5

I needed to work on my presentation (er, "casual chat") for my fellowship's annual progress review, so, naturally, the only thing for me to do was cook.

Richard's makes some a very nice pork sausage that Dad occasionally brings back from Louisiana. If you grill it up in a pan with some veggies—for this round I chose, zuchini, asparagus, cherry tomatoes, spinach, garlic, and poblano peppers) and then add some cream (or half & half), you can make a nice, flavorful pan sauce, with little additional seasoning required. Toss with a pasta with a nice, high service area-to-volume ratio (I used cresta di gallo), preferrably colorful, and you've got a very tasty pasta dish.

Then I got to work.

6/6

The funding review was mostly uneventful. The boss got annoyed with me over my inability to put things succinctly, but otherwise everything was fine.

Cindy had a new grill pan she had been itching to try out and wanted to cook some fajitas. Her apartment's AC was out, though, so she packed everything up and came over for dinner.

I tend to make a dish and then eat it as a meal. Cindy, on the other hand, makes a meal. She went all out with corn, beans, rice, guacamole, chicken and beef. Good stuff (although I prefer to cook with a little more salt).

6/8

Neuroscience Dave, who was a friend that I saw only very sporadically, was moving to Birmingham with his lab (there but for the grace of God go I), and was having a farewell party at the Volcano. I came for a round of drinks, and then dropped in on Will over at Woodrow's.

6/9

Pixar's films have become a big event for me, so I was glad for the chance to see Cars on its opening night. Cindy picked up Will from school and made our way to the Edwards theater.

The film was certainly beautiful, and it was enjoyable, but in the end, merely good, not great.

We stopped by Woodrow's for a round on the way home.

6/10

I stopped by Char's to borrow a few ties that morning and then set about putting something together. The number of situations requiring formal, semi-formal, or even business casual attire has fallen off drastically since coming to grad school, and at the moment I have exactly one sport coat and one pair of dressy slacks that fit. Determined to not wear the exact same thing that I wore for Easter and Becca's graduation, I tried a bunch of things before settling on a dark brown shirt with lighter brown tie and jacket, and, if I may humbly say, it looked pretty hot.

The church where Graham and Angela/Kennedy's wedding was held was pretty, but a bit too... glossy feeling. Too new. It seemed fake. The ceremony was... unremarkable?

The reception was at the River Oaks Garden Club, and the space (particularly the indoor space, which is important in June) was a bit small. There were some interesting appetizers being brought around by waiters (barbecue bacon-wrapped sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese in little pastry shells, little ceviche portions that I was brave enough to try), but the stuff out on the buffet was a fairly pedestrian selection of chips, crackers, dips, veggies, and fruit.

But there was both Shiner and Bitburger. Which was good.

Most of the program's "old guard" was there: Mike & Rebecca, Chris & Ezgi, Matt & Amber, (now former) program admin Wanda, Char, Jesse (briefly) and I. It was a nice enough time.

Afterwards we went to the hotel where all the out of town guests were staying to share a drink with the bride and groom, but things were expensive and the old guard was wanting food, so we made an IHOP run, leaving just as G&A were coming down to join us.

Practice; Dios (malos), Octopus Party, & the Starlight Mints; Bowling for Dan; Bachelor Party

5/31

Practice again. I continue to get the hang of things and start to enjoy myself.

6/1

Char and Baker picked me up from school for lunch at Double Dave's (a first) and planning Graham's bachelor party. Double Dave's was the first pizza buffet I had had in quite some time. I t was good for buffet (but expensive). The non-pizza options were a nice touch (pepperoni roles, pepper steak rolls, bread sticks, dessert breadsticks), as was the salad bar. The problem with buffets is thinking that you have to get your money's worth...

Cindy and I decided to check out the show at Warehouse Live, which featured three bands that might be hit or miss alone, but together would hopefully provide sufficient entertainment value.

We ended up missing Dios, which may or may not have been a shame—last time I saw them they didn't come close to the replicating the brilliance of their debut album, but then the new album seems like it might be a little more live-show friendly. I'm sure I'll have another opportunity to see 'em. We did get there in time for Octopus Party, who were characteristically entertaining if not enthralling with their instrumental, toy-filled electronic rock.

Interestingly, the crowd went crazy over always cute frontwoman Yvonne's theramin playing... but, to digress, repeat after me. The theramin is a valid musical instrument. The theramin has been used as a solo instrument in orchestral works. The theramin is emphatically not just for making nifty special effects sounds. This wonderful instruement should be played as such and have the opportunity to do something melodius every now and then. Maybe its sound effect-ness looms larger in my mind than it did in the show, but that's my recollection of things.

The Starlight Mints came out, but they got sort of boring, so we didn't stick around.

6/2

I picked up Kristin (who was running a few minutes late) to make a few last minute preparations for Dan's birthday, including picking up the ice cream cake and fitting 40 balloons in the Mazda.

We made it to the bowling alley, got set up, rolled a few games, ate some bad pizza (salt would have helped immensely, as would seasoning), and drank some beer. Some of the crowd opted to go on to Walter's to catch a show afterwards; Cindy and I got drawn in by the couch and the TV.

6/3

I managed to run late for Graham's party (I needed to iron a shirt), so I missed the dramatic-if-botched kidnapping of Graham, as performed by Char, Baker, and Leroy. I met up with them at the house nad was immediately told to drink two beers. Marsh soon showed up with the BBQ. Will, scarily enough, broke out a paddle from his fraternity days (this is what happens when you try to get an action shot with a camera phone):

Drinking continued; Anup showed up.

We moved downtown to Suede, two doors down from Slainte. We paid a cover to get in, and felt immediately very... white (which is true enough, I suppose). We stuck around long enough to have a round of shots, before checking out the place next door which was... abandoned. Oliver showed up and ordered a round of Knob Creek (which I later found out was high proof, and that he had done the same thing to me at my birthday last year, which explains a few things).

Angela was next door at Slainte, and managed to get us in for free (thank god). I had a nice buzz on at that point. We migrated up to the second floor with the dance floor, and I made my way out onto the balcony, where I, randomly, ran into Kevin from my BUGWB days, and... ah, hell, can't remember his name, but another guy from Baylor CS (Bryan, I'll have to talk to you to set the record straight). Very interesting.

Eventually, after some dancing, Graham decided that it was time for him to vomit. I managed to convince everybody that it was a bad idea to let him do so over the balcony and onto the sidewalk below, so we sent Mike ahead for Anup's car, while somebody else helped me get Graham out. He was fast losing the ability to move under his own power, so I was thankful when security pointed us towards an elevator and we were able to avoid the stairs, which would have only ended badly. I'm pretty sure I muscled through some people who didn't understand that was preferable to being vomited on, and we got Graham out just in time. Mike showed up with the car and we returned to the house.

Graham passed out in a desk chair (which was easy to roll into the bathroom). Somebody chose to undress him and start writing on him in marker, which would piss the fiancé off the next morning. Char eventually passed out on the back steps, so some of us chose to rearrange his furniture, including flipping his mattress, which would, consequently, eventually pick up marker stains.

Convinced that enough damage had been done for the night, I opted to call it an evening.

Cindy/The Office; Woodrow's; Band practice; Chuy's and X-Men; Rudyard's; Dan at the Proletariat; Downing Street; Brasil

5/21

Back in town, Cindy and I started working our way through the British version of The Office.

5/22-23

Um, apparently went to Woodrow's one of these days. Can't remember specifics.

5/24

Band practice, or jam session, depending on the way you want to look at it, with Jeff and Vincent. It took me a few minutes to recall the stuff I picked up the previous week, but I did better.

5/25

Cindy and I settled on Tex Mex for our pre-X3 meal, so we dined at Chuy's, which was tasty, as usual. Then off to the movie. And... well... It wasn't awful. It wasn't up to the artisanal standards of the first two (particularly the second one). There were some good ideas, and some good moments. And then some bad ideas and some bad moments. The good stuff (seeing Beast fight, Juggernaut running after Kitty, everything with Multiple Man, Colossus) certainly kept me going through the viewing.

One thing I found particularly annoying was the way that (spoiler!) Cyclops was unceremoniously killed off early on, and how Halle Berry was then the de facto leader. Storm as a character is wholly uninteresting, and big name actress or not, she got way too much screen time and way too many lines.

It will be interesting to see where the franchise goes from here.


5/26

Went to Rudyard's, apparently. Can't really remember with whom. Whoops. Possibly, The Dan crew plus Cindy?

5/27

Dan DJed at the Proletariat. Those nights, too, are starting to run together.

5/28

Char organized a group of people to go to cigar bar Downing Street for drinks. The interior was nice, but we were sitting outside and didn't really get to enjoyed it, so, from my perspective, we were just paying too much for drinks. Angela and some of her friends were there, as were MDA Rebecca (no husband in tow), and Matt and Amber. Cindy eventually joined us. Matt and Char partook of some nasty scotch. We all had some tequila neat, a mistake I don't plan to repeat. We never did bust out the cigars.

Afterwards, Matt, Amber, Rebecca, and I went to IHOP for some late night eats. Rebecca had a rather funny fall in the parking lot while trying to give Char the swift kick in the ass he probably deserved, but she had her revenge later sharing details about her husband that Char didn't really want to know.

I ordered the stuffed french toast, which is no longer actually french toast, but some sort of filled donut.

It was a nice night with some people I don't normally hang out with.

5/29

After six months, I finally, finally got around to giving the apartment a thorough cleaning (and it's about that time again).

In doing so, I managed to piss Cindy off, who apparently has a big thing about "spending the day with me" occasionally—despite having told me that she would be working. But oh well. To make up for it, we met up at Brasil for dinner and split one of their great sandwiches (roasted bell pepper, fresh mozarella, and prosciutto) and their excellent mediterranean plate (tabuli, pesto hummus, and baba ganoush). Afterwards, some Futurama was watched.