Pre-Fourth: Cecil's & the Prole; the Fourth; Fancy haircut & Cindy (briefly); Cooking; Running around with Will; Museum; Under the weather

7/3

Having taken the previous Thursday off, I didn't feel quite right about taking the pre-fourth Monday off. That night, however, the partying began, first with drinks at Cecil's with Cindy, Dan, Kristin, etc. and then at the Proletariat.

7/4

Having learned my lesson on Memorial Day, I spent the day with Cindy, a gesture which meant a lot to her. She had to go into work briefly (how sad is that?), but when she returned we went to run some errands, starting with Bed, Bath & Beyond where I picked up a grill pan and some good ideas for Cindy's birthday.

Next was Best Buy, where I began looking for a new "computer monitor", one that happened to be large enough to double as a TV and that could display a resolution of 1920x1080 progressively scanned pictures, which just so happens to be the resolution of a lot of HDTV.

After that we looked around in World Market next door, where I had to talk Cindy out of buying what I was now planning on buying her for her birthday.

We got back to my place and Cindy went to the store for barbecue supplies and for a couple of items to make Mexican martinis. We had drinks and prepared a pork tenderloin and then went to Char's for some barbecue. Between Char's ribs and our tenderloin we had a good meal. We then packed up a cooler and went to Char's old apartment complex to stake out a spot for fireworks. We were able to see both the downtown and Herman park fireworks well, and had nice, cold beer to make things even better.

We met Dan and Kristin up at the Prole for some pool and our introduction to Sparkz, the wonderfully horrible alcoholic energy drink.

7/5

I hadn't gotten my hair cut since my February trip to Austin, and the it was getting annoying. With no trip to Austin on the horizon and a trip to Waco an uncertainty, I made the obvious choice in picking somewhere to go to get my haircut: I asked the gay guy.

Jeff gave me the name of a guy at a salon not too far from me. I showed up and found the place brightly lit, well decorated, and rather fancy. Arriving a few minutes late, I found everybody in staff meeting and was told I was "early" (bullshit; I'm never early) and was offered a beverage while I waited.

Paul seemed to immediately know what he was doing with my hair and I was pleased with the end result. I was less pleased with the $80 or so of product he tried to sell me, but it was simple enough to decline it. The haircut itself was $40, expensive but less than the last one I got.

This upcoming weekend it was Cindy's turn to go to a conference, but I was able to briefly catch up with her for a beer before she took off.

7/6

The pork loin that we had bought at Randall's was on sale super cheap, so of course I got more. Like last time I used Stubb's marinade, bourbon, and habanero tabasco, but this time added pineapple juice and orange juice to the mix, and marinaded over night.

So I heated up the grill pan and put the pork loin down, and then turned to the fruits and vegetables: squash, zucchini, bell pepper, jalapeño peppers, pineapple, and apple. I sliced them up, tossed them in olive oil, bourbon, and garlic salt, and then threw them on the grill pan for a nice sear. It took a while, but the end result was damned tasty.

7/7

Will was once again banished from the house (though probably by choice), so after a length period of driving around trying to settle on dinner, we ended up at the never disappointing but never thrilling Fu's Garden for dinner, and then picked up a copy of the original Superman from Blockbuster and spent the evening watching that and reading comics.

7/8

It seems to be becoming a summer tradition that I have one particular Saturday night where I get thoroughly smashed and stay out late.

This year, it started out at the MFAH for the mixed media shindig of the month. I got in, grabbed a beer, and found Dan and Kristin. Levi had hooked them up with VIP access and they wanted to make use of it. I suppose they were watching who got on the elevators to make sure everyone had the correct color armbands on, but they weren't checking us individually. Like most things in life, looking like I knew what I was doing was the important thing, and I managed to slip onto the elevator, wristband firmly tucked into pocket. Upstairs there was a mostly decimated food table, and open bar, which I was able to order from (arm again snugly in pocket). I downed beers and cocktails in rapid succession.

Once the VIP room lost its charm, we went back downstairs and outside to catch the show. Dan's VIP wristband was still good for free drinks, so we kept after the beers. I don't remember much about the show itself. DJs, probably.

These things finish up by midnight, so the next stop was the Proletariat, where I met New Jessica (who I actually haven't seen yet), who knew Dan and Kristin... somehow, and was the sound guy's girlfriend. We chatted over pool. She was enthusiastic about my science career, which I suppose was flattering, but these things can get quickly annoying. I don't really like talking science anymore, particularly not with people who don't really understand it. But other than that, it was cool.

Next up we decided to go check out the museum after party, over in the warehouse district. I followed Dan, Kristin, and New Jessica there, we parked with only slight difficulty, and paid our way in. There was mostly just open space outside between the warehouses, with a bar set up and one building open. Oh, and port-o-potties.

The bar was stocked with Ziegen and (wait for it) Margs!. It was all free with the cover charge, so I did some double fisting. There was a warehouse open with a DJ, but it was hotter inside than out, so we mostly stuck outside.

Around 3 or so I started to sober up, and realized that if I stuck around I would only start getting drunker again, so I took off. Diving probably wasn't the smartest idea I had that night, but hey, I make the occasional mistake.

Anyway, good time, good company, lots of booze.

7/9

Yep. Hungover. Totally worth it.

Woodrow's & Will; Nashville; Superman; Cindy's crew day 1 & 2

6/25

Putting off packing for the Conference, I met up with Will for beer. And then I came home and didn't pack. The conference is the one put on by my funding agency. Their priorities have changed, so it's never relevant to what I do, but on the up side we get a total of $750 to cover travel, room and board, and we're told not to bring anyof it back, if we can help it.

6/26

I could put off packing no longer, so I got that taken care of. Jim and Jeff picked me up, and, just like last year, Jim criticized my choice of travelling in casual attire. Jim dropped us off, I checked my bag (because that's how I roll), and we partook of the first of many free meals. I opted for taco salad, which was... competent. We went on to the gate, met up with the rest of our travelling party: Jesse, Graham, Rebecca M., and that girl whose name I can never remember.

We boarded our flight, and a couple uneventful hours later we were in Nashville. My luggage showed up quite quickly, putting my anti-checking detractors in their place. Graham and Rebecca signed on for an SUV (I think a Suzuki SX4, but I'm not entirely sure), and we went to collect the vehicle (walking past a Hertz Shelby Mustang that looked pretty nifty) and drove to our hotel, the Vanderbilt Marriott (we were given the choice between two hotels and obviously chose the more expensive of the two). There was some question as to whether we should park the car in the garage or valet it, but the answer was obvious to me, as it was paid for, so valet it was.

We got checked in, rested up, got on the hotel's internet connection (paid for!), and tracked down a place for dinner. The vegetarian-inclined ladies weren't with us, so we opted for steak, and chose the highest-rated steak place that happened to have good drink specials, as this year we were required to submit itemized receipts, and spending our federal money on alcohol was verboten. Lavish steak dinners? Sure. Wine? Hell no.

The place that fit the bill was the Sunset Grill. We called for reservations but ended up getting there a bit early, so we started on the first of several half-priced bottles of wine at the bar while they got our table ready.

I liked the restaurant a lot. It was nice but not stuffy, and had a modern feel to it. We started off with appetizers, making it quite clear that we going all out. Jeff tried to charm our waiter into selling us alcohol but billing us for food items, but it his manager nixed that plan.

The guys wanted calimari, and though I'm no fan of it, I certainly wasn't going to hold them back. I tried it; there was a nice cocktail sauce, but it did no more to turn me toward calimari. The next item was a duck confit cigar: duck meat in phylo dough with goat cheese, walnuts, and a strawberry port jam (good thing they have their menu online; makes my job easier). That was different and quite good. The final item was a beef brisket tamale that was also good.

Since there was no reason to pass up a course, I selected their interesting Sonoma salad, which had apples, almond, blue cheese, and a zinfandel vinaigrette and was excellent.

When it came time for the main course, three of us went for steak, but Jeff bucked the trend and selected the truffled angus burger, which I can confirm was great, particularly with the side of sweet potato fries. When it came to my steak, there was really no reason not to get the largest tenderloin cut they had, a 12 oz. It was served with mashed potatoes, but I passed them up in favor of their specialty truffled gnocci. To complete my steak experience I ordered sides of asparagus and mushrooms, which in my mind are pretty much essential.

So the gnocci was wonderful, with the truffles adding a nice, light flavor to them. The steak was, being tenderloin, excellent, and the port wine sauce highlighted that nicely. I didn't finish my sides, but you can be sure that there was no steak left on my plate.

Finally, it was time for dessert. Knowing that it would be shear folly to each order our own dessert, we instead went with the dessert trio. Of course I wanted creme brule, my personal favorite, but the guys talked me into going with the most interesting menu items. The first was the the coconut sushi, designed to visually evoke sushi with chocolate in place of the algae sheets, coconut in place of the rice, and almonds in place of the fish, garnished with candied ginger and chocolate chop sticks.

Next up was the other guy's favorites, and indeed it was hard to top this: a butterscotch habanero bread pudding. I'm not a big bread pudding fan (the issue is partially the texture), but I think butterscotch is woefully underused, and the habanero was just right to give it an nice spicey finish.

My personal favorite, however, was the peanut butter and jelly french toast topped with bananas foster. I thought it was a wonderfully playful and clever take on the classic comfort food of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

We left stuffed and made our way back to the hotel, opting to take a constitutional across the street to the Nashville parthenon. On the way Graham had his first experience with fireflies (reminding me of the magnetic fields song "100,000 Fireflies"). The parthenon wasn't as impressive up close, having been constructed from graveled concrete, but the walk certainly helped. Pictures (which sort of suck, being taken at night with the camera phone):




I wanted a bottle of water when I got back but the hotel gift shop was closed, so I had to get it out of a vending machine. I expensed it, of course.

6/27

After the experience with the conference last year, and with no sign of things improving, we were in no rush to show up. I met up with the gang at the nearby Starbucks, ordered the biggest damn chai latte they had and a bottle of water, and then we went to the conference, checked in, weighed our options for a few minutes, and then turned right around and left for lunch. Of course, we could have eaten whatever crap boxed lunch they had for us at the conference, but with the option of actually going out for lunch, why bother?

Dad had pretty much insisted that I try barbecue joint Calhoun's, which I talked everyone else into with some slight difficulty. I was disappointed to find it had more in common with a chain like Toni Roma's than a mom and pop barbecue shop. Dad had recommended that I go with a half rack of ribs and pulled pork. This particular combo wasn't on the menu, but I ordered it anyway, and Graham, admiring my initiative at ordering exactly what I wanted, went with the same thing. We also had their potato skin appetizers (also served with pulled pork) and fried green tomatoes.

The ribs were good, as was the pork, but it was more... chain good than legendarily good. It was a satisfying meal, particularly topped off with white chocolate banana pudding, but I found it strange that it didn't live up to Dad's description.

We drove around downtown Nashville to sight see a bit but found few sights to see and so headed back to the hotel. Some world cup was watched, some naps taken, and we regrouped for dinner.

Everyone was wanting sushi (most everyone), so we selected Virago as a hip Asian fusion place. It was nearby so we elected to walk. The place was a stereotypically trendy upscale asian place, with lots of industrial materials present in the architecture and low lighting. I ordered a Kirin, my Asian beer of choice, and we also laid into some sake.

We ordered some spring rolls (standard) and thai lobster shooters: creamy curry and lobster bits served in shot glasses. I'm not particularly pro- or anti-lobster, but these were good.

Unfortunately, my dinner of sirloin topped vietnamese vermicelli salad was completely bland and uninteresting. I made my annual effort to try sushi with the same results as usual. Our waitress was a little bitchy, too, considering how much bill we were dropping.

Things were redeemed, though, with dessert. There was not one but two creme brules on the menu: a jasmine tea and a ginger. I asked our wiatress which she recommended and she suggested the jasmine, so I went with that, and made it quite clear that this dessert was mine. It came out with the coffee I had requested, and I gave the carmelized sugar shell the traditional tap with a spoon before diving in. The jasmine was a nice, subtle but surprisingly flavorful accent to the custard.

We walked back to the hotel, Jeff and I stopped off at Tower Records, and then we called it a night.

6/28

As with the day before we began at Starbuck's before going to the conference, but this time we bothered to stick around to catch a talk given by someone that was part of our group—actually, some work that I had been a part of, but my name was left off (it's OK, I hate that little fucker anyway). The bad news was that we were stuck listening to another talk, which was absolutely awful. The work was trivial, boring, and wholly unremarkable: some kind of microarray "package" for MATLAB, and the speaker actually took time out of his talk to explain how to download and install the damned thing from the web. These people are being given funding priority over real research. It's a horrible state of affairs.

Getting out while we could, we bet up with some people at the nearby borders, and hung out until lunch time, at which point we packed up, checked out, and settled on DaVinci's Pizza for lunch. They were running low on crust, so we ended splitting pizzas two to a pizza rather than each ordering our own. After a nice flatbread appetizer and some good local beer, the pizzas came out. The girls went with somethign veggie-ish with "brown sauce"—pesto and tomato sauce—that was good. I personally got the barbecue chicken pizza with jalapeños, and it was very enjoyable. This pizza place was a winner.

We walked around a bit afterwards before heading to the airport and flying home. I spotted this place, which I photographed for LS Lauren (it's her nickname; I should probably send them to her at some point):



I returned, unpacked, and then Cindy, Will and I went for a midnight showing of Superman Returns, which was a solidly enjoyable film.

6/29

I took the day off. I had been away on work for the last three days, after all! I managed to get by Aaron Brothers to pick up a fram for my Band of Horses poster, and for the sheet of paper that proves that I passed my qualifier, which is hanging in the entrance to my bedroom, a nice reminder of a trial that I finished and will never have to deal with again.

I also dropped my receipts off for the trip. My total for the trip was $720.74, a little short of my $750 budget. It was a failure on my part, but not a spectacular one.

6/30

Cindy's roommate Sarah was having a birthday party at a friend's house in that not-quite-River-Oaks-but-not-quite-Montrose area of town, so we went did some damage to the keg, and waved sparklers around. Mmm... keg...

7/1

Some of Cindy's friends from high school were in town, so I went with her to Ross' parents' house in Jersey Village. I was a little bored, but I think it was important to Cindy for me to spend time with her friends. The six pack of Shiner I brought helped, although I felt like a bit of a lush until some others joined me.

Cooking; The Walkmen; Recruiting, Baker St.; Poker; Band of Horses

6/19

Back from Austin, I turn my attention to a little cooking. Dad has, since I've been in Houston, made a habit of bringing me packages of pork sausage and andouille made by Richard's. The andouille usually goes into red beans and rice, and the pork I either serve as barbecue, or...

This one I've done several times. Slice the sausage (going at an angle makes it look nifty) and throw it into a largish skillet and start cooking. Add in some veggies—this time I went with zucchini, asparagus (new this time) and halved grape tomatoes (also new) and a poblano pepper (usually use jalapeños) to start. Then, of course, some garlic, jalapeño seasoning, jalapeño tabasco for some seasoning. Cook it up, and then throw in some fresh spinach and let it cook. Optionally, add some proscuitto for a little

Then, the hat trick: a pint of half and half. This will combine with the sausage grease and cook down to create an incredibly tasty cream sauce. Toss it all with a pasta with plenty of surface area (I used cresti di gallo), and, preferably, colorful. Top with parmesan (or asiago or romano) and red pepper flakes.

Great. And I can claim this one as an original. Cindy loved it, too.

6/20

Finally, a chance to do the Walkmen up right. My first chance to see them was at ACL last year, but it was too loud, too hot, too dirty. Then there was the Camel promotional show at the Meridian, where they just couldn't overcome an indifferent crowd.

But this show had, in a wonderful twist of fate, been moved from Numbers (blah) to Walter's (yay!). Char had some time ago expressed an interest in checking out some shows, and the Wlakmen seemed like they would be something he'd like.

And the verdict? On their best songs, a huge amount of energy and great performances. On their not-quite-so-great songs, well, they produced a somewhat uneven show. But, overall, fun.

No matter what, though, they had their nifty little antique piano:


6/22

School usually brings some undergrads in during the summer as cheap labor, and the graduate school usually takes the opportunity to do some recruiting. Wanda lined up Oliver, Anup and I to man the booth. She was smart enough to order some fajita wraps, which were quite popular given that they were the most substantial food available. Lots of cute girls around too. Who knows where they all run off to before grad school time comes around? Probably med school... Being the fine gentleman we are, we were tasked by BCM Lauren with finding a good place to dump the sand from the little sand box their program had set up. Anyway, it was an enjoyable experience, and I managed to score an extra water bottle.

Anup and Oliver suggested that it was a good time to go for beer, so we made our way over to Baker Street and made our way through a couple pitchers, some gossip, and a game of darts. Good times...

I was a little drunk by the time I got home, but sobered up pretty quickly in time to go out with Cindy for more beer.

6/23

Oliver threw another one of his trademarked poker nights, accompanied by beer and homemade pizza. Thankfully the number of people playing was relatively small, and rotating, so we didn't play tournament style, which works well with my short attention span. We did play Texas Hold 'Em, which is not my favorite, but you can't win 'em all. Or can you?

From a ten dollar buy-in, I managed to reach a balance of $25, netting myself a nice profit. My interest was waning, and it was a good time to cash out. Beer was on me the next night.

6/24

Band of Horses came out of nowhere with a shockingly good album earlier in the year, and I'd been looking forward to their show for months. They were playing Walter's, which was a nice, intimate choice. I ran into Molly and got to catch up with her for a few minutes, which was good.

The show wasn't... spectacular or anything. They pretty much duplicated their atmospheric, slightly country-tinged rock from the album, but the live setting didn't add that much. Still, good music, good beer, good friends. Nothing at all to complain about.

Austin: Donkey Show; Art House; Art Palace; Father's Day

6/15

Rebecca had pieces in two separate gallery openings on this particular weekend, so I decided it was a good time to work in a trip to Austin, especially since I had never seen any of her recent (duct tape-based) art in person.

So, not even a month after my last visit, I took Thursday off and traveled I10 and and 71, arriving in Austin around 5:00, just in time to partake of some Texadelphia and change at the gallery, the Donkey Show.

Apparently the thing to do in Austin now is to rent a house, live in one room of it, and dedicate the rest of the rooms to a gallery. This was the first such gallery of the weekend. It was a great house; it seemed a bit of a shame not to actually be able to use the whole thing as living space.

So I got to see Rebecca's piece. It was made entirely of off-white duct tape, run in vertical parallel lines up the wall, along the lines of the ceiling, stopping or continuing based on the intersections of other lines in the architecture. More tape ran diagonally through the air from the ceiling to the wall to form an obtuse triangle, adding some dimensionality. Due to slight variations in light levels, various regions appeared to be made out of slightly varying shades of duct tape, but it was all the same kind. The off-white worked well with the wood floors, white walls, and the superimposed lines made some nifty moiré patterns.




There was another piece on the floor that was mean to be a landscape of wall texture marked with whisps of spray paint, but to me it really wasn't that interesting.

Lots of people showed up for the opening, and we made our way through the available Tecate and wine. People started to leave, too. Some of Becca's art teachers came by, one of whom was young and cute. She had some of her stop motion animation on her iPod video that was pretty nifty (but maybe slightly disturbing). I tried to get her perspective on the place of stop motion animation (and its photorealistic effects) in the face of computer animation, but I think I lost her somewhere along the way.

Once things had cleared out some and night had fallen, we trekked to a nearby gas station to pick up some beer, forties, cigarettes, and so forth. I'll note that I only ever seem to go to gas stations for beer in Austin (or at least with Becca). These elements were communally consumed lying in the grass in front of the house, and has the hours got later and everyvody else left, Rebecca and I were left with her friends Ali and Kaitlin, sitting on the front porch, while I tried to say intelligent things about art to Kaitlin, who is much more educated than me in such matters. I like to think that I didn't make a complete ass of myself.

6/16

Becca needed to swing by Art House, the gallery where the "New American Talent" exhibit that included her second piece was, to insure that her piece was, in fact, complete. That accomplished, we went to the nearby Athenian Grill for some great cafeteria-style Greek food. I had a nice greek salad with a creamy dressing, a good chicken and rice soup, some rice, and a gyro. It was really good stuff. Different from Niko's, but very good.

Next on the list was some shopping: Rebecca needed a dress and we both needed to get a Father's Day card.

We returned to Becca's for a bit, changed, and headed downtown to hit up a happy hour before the show. We settled on an overly hip bar/latin fusion place, Saba ordered a few appetizers that were... marginal, and a round of mexican martinis that were more martini than mexican. After our quasi-dinner we tabbed out, and discovered that we hadn't been charged for our drinks, which meant that we tipped generously.

Despite her high heels, I managed to talk Rebecca into a brief trek over to the Gingerman to get let her try some Lindeman's, which she liked quite a bit. The bartender bore an amazing resemblance to Nathan from school. I followed that up with a glass of Stone IPA, and the look on Becca's face after she tried it was worth her ensuing ire over not warning her of the bitterness of the beer.

From there we went on to Art House, and I made the rounds and checked out the art. Becca's new piece was quite different from her Donkey Show piece, incorporating much more color, using the large glass window to great effect, incorporating some white tape, and altering the angles of the through-the-air runs of tape.





A lot of the stuff I didn't care for, but there was cool stuff too did. There was one piece that was a chair, with an image of another chair projected onto it, but hard to see due to the negative space in the physical chair. Another piece was a sculpture constructed of broken umbrellas. I also liked the small "room" constructed of steel and pink plexiglass. And the two large looking panes of what appeared to be glass but was actually candy (sugar and water). One piece was made of car batteries suggestively connected to gasoline canisters. One that I didn't like was a small greenhouse of plants on "life support", which was overly dramatic and dominated the room. My favorite was a bush made out of broken umbrellas.




All the while I was sipping on beer, but never enough to really get anywhere. Mom and Dad showed up with flowers (which would become a bit of an albatross later on), and though a bit weirded out by the people and the art seemed to enjoy themselves. I also had some good conversations with people about exactly how awesome Becca's work was

Things wound down and we met up with some of Becca's non-art friends over at the hotel across the street for a couple of rounds before going to an East Austin loft to check out a party. It turned out to be a little lame, so we went across the street to the Peacock to continue the drinking, and I witnessed a very shamless hookup attempt.

We went back to Kaitlin and Ali's to hang out. I talked to Kaitlin a while and then noticed that her answers were getting less and less comprehensible until I realized she was asleep.

6/17

Rebecca and I did lunch at Whole Foods (I enjoyed an excellent barbecue wrap) before heading downtown so that Becca could attend a lecture at Art House. I went to a nearby coffee shop and got cozy with my laptop to do some editing that just had to be done on a paper that the boss still hasn't read. This is what happens when I try to be responsible and productive.

But the coffee house had lonestar tall boys. Fuck coffee. I had me some beer.

Becca and Kaitlin came down after the lecture was over. Becca and I took off for the Donkey Show, where Becca had to meet someone who wanted to see her piece. Again, I worked diligently...

I suppose there was some sort of dinner involved later on, but I'm having trouble remembering exactly what. That taken care of, though, we went to Art Palace (another house/gallery in East Austin) to see the show Ali had curated. There was a keg of beer, but the girls curating that were being both bitchy and stingy, and there was no way I was going to get drunk at that rate. Growing increasingly bored, I eventually talked Becca into walking down the street (again to a convenience store) and grabbed some beer, and things improved from there.

At one point, Becca arm-wrestled all challengers (once again, camera phone plus action shot equals bad idea):


The evening wore on and Arturo shut down Art Palace so we could head north a bit to hit up a pool party. There was swimming, mezcal (which tasted... carcinogenic), cheap beer, and chicken fighting. And then the rain came. Not too long after that we took off, and stopped off at Ali and Kaitlin's, only to hear them yelling at us from the balcony, so we went up and had some more beer with them and... looked at random words in the dictionary. Yep. It got quite late, so I finally talked Becca into leaving.

6/18

Mom & Dad stuck around town long enough to do brunch with us, once again at South Congress Café, which was solid as usual. Not too long after that, I left to make my way back to Houston...

Honestly...

...if you were someone whose job it was to bag groceries, and a customer asked you to keep the cold items together, would that be such a fucking hard request to comply with?

Unbelievable. I have yet to see a bagger capable of doing so. Honestly, I'd rather bag my own groceries.

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