Rental car; Harry Potter; Parent meeting; Trip preparations

So much for not hitting the "year behind" mark. Well, shit. Maybe I can knock out a couple posts tonight. I've done a good job of keeping staying on top of my daily reading, so that's one less thing vying for my time, so I'm going to shoot for picking up the pace.

7/23/07

Thanks to out fortune getting the California excursion paid for and getting airline vouchers to take care of our flights to New York, not only could I afford the new iPhone, but also to have some scratchy nastiness on my car fixed.

So, took the car to the good ol' body shop, where they now know and take care of me (this was round 3), and then got a ride to Enterprise to pick up my rental car as paid for by insurance. There was a brief time when I was worried I'd have to drive a PT Cruiser around, but thankfully got a pretty nice little red Nissan Sentra.

The Sentra was my first chance to drive a car with Continuously Variable Transmission. It's a pretty nice system, actually, probably great for most of the driving public. No jerky shifts, etc. It was creepy getting used to it, just because the car kept not shifting (or, rather, kept shipping imperceptibly) when you expected to. The "gearing", such as it was, was not as agressive as I might like, but hell, it's all software, it could easily be tweaked.

Now I just need to try out a dual-clutch system and my tour of new transmission technologies will be complete.

It was a decent little car, I suppose, probably a nice alternative to a Corolla. Didn't drive as well as the Mazda or, say, a Civic, but it was pleasant enough.

I'd passed up being home to receive my copy of the final Harry Potter book to attend the wedding the previous weekend, so Monday evening was my first chance to really dig into the book, so dig I did...

7/24/07

Band practice, then more Harry Potter reading.

7/25/07

During the days of this week, I snuck off several times for "lunch", found a quiet, comfortable spot, and got some Harry Potter reading done.

Picked up an iPhone case to protect my new baby during the new york trip. Dinner and Sopranos after that.

7/26/07

Got at haircut for the wedding. Paul, my stylist, referred to it as "tuxedo hair". It looked good, I have to say.

7/27/07

So, Cindy and I had been dating almost 2 years, and I still hadn't met her parents, who live in town. Of course, that's in keeping with the rest of our relationship. We weren't officially "together" until we'd been dating about 9 months; it was around the 1 year mark that my parents found out she existed, and around the 1.5 mark that they actually met her. We move at a leisurely pace, I suppose, so it wasn't too sad that I was just then meeting them.

We met them for dinner in honor of Cindy's birthday at a Chinese place out west on Bellaire. Food was good; must have been pretty authentic. Thankfully Linn, Cindy's brother who I'd spent some time with, was there. Cindy's parents were very nice to me, but I was surprised by now much of a language barrier there was. I definitely had trouble (and still do) understanding them (and more or less vice versa). But all in all, it was a pretty successful meeting.

7/28/07

Various errands, laundry, and so forth, preparing for our New York trip. I had planned to take Cindy out for a nice dinner for her birthday but she had work to finish up before the trip, so that didn't happen. We did make it to a party at the MFAH and then got some drinks at Rudz afterwards.

7/29/07

Somehow I'd gotten the crazy notion in my head that if I worked hard, my paper could be submitted while I was in New York. Idiocy, in retrospect. But anyway, did that, got packed.

Tweets for Today

• 13:22 Circumstances last night prevented me from Twittering, so I will attempt to recap now. #
• 13:23 1) Nice dinner with Jeff, Jim, Jerry, and Cindy at Buca di Beppo. Well, nice company. Mediocre dinner. #
• 13:23 2) Drink back at Jeff & Jim's. The man makes an excellent martini. #
• 13:24 3) Leave, discover my car along with several other has been egged. Hastily go after my car door with paper towels. #
• 13:25 4) Aside: who says drugs are bad? If those little shits that did this had been strung out on heroin, they wouldn't have been egging my car. #
• 13:25 5) Manage to find car wash that's open at midnight (59 & Kirby). Feel a little better. #
• 13:26 6) Decide it's too late to catch Trail of Dead at #s. Instead consume pitcher of Lonestar at Late Nite Pie with Char & Alison. #
• 13:26 7) Beer makes me feel better. #
• 13:28 8) Who the *fuck* eggs cars anymore? Couldn't they have just broken in and stolen my iPod? Would have been cheaper. #
• 13:29 Now at the car wash getting some *other* cosmetic issues taken care of. Good thing I didn't get that done yesterday. #
• 13:30 Oh, apparently the little fuckers that did this got caught. There are phone numbers, but no guarantee they're real. Feeling litigious. #
• 14:57 Is money that used to buy CDs paying off credit card debt incurred buying CDs? tinyurl.com/589n8b Probably not the whole story... #
• 15:03 My car has been washed 3 times in 3 days. Strange. #
• 15:37 Hick high school kid: why are you playing crap country on your laptop speakers in the car wash waiting area? Because you are a douchebag? #
• 02:54 Cindy & I split the Dogfish Head Red & White tonight. Not as good as I had hoped. Reminded me of their Jiahu or one of the Chimays. #
• 02:55 Watched Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. The Bruce Timm/Paul Dini DC Cartoons (Batman, Superman, Justice League) are *so* excellent. #

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Tweets for Today

• 09:57 Thank God for wireless at the car dealership. Though I always feel a little dirty that it's filtered: no mazda3forums.com for me. #
• 10:03 Wait. Penny Arcade blocked. This just got worse. #
• 10:16 And Houstonist is blocked. Well, it's not that good anyway. #
• 10:19 & Joystiq. Nothing fun allowed, apparently. #
• 10:48 Pitchfork blocked. Now I'm really feeling oppressed. Thank God for the iPhone... #
• 13:31 Having lunch with 'Brina. #
• 15:20 And now, to try to get some work done. #
• 17:21 I realized last night that I just don't get or give enough drunk dials anymore. #
• 18:13 Okkervil River are a blessing. #
• 18:53 Friday and Battlestar Galactica. What a great combination. #
• 01:07 Wow. Didn't realize how much I missed the office until it came back. #

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Vehicles and breakfast cereals

From the comments on Jalopnik's review of the Dodge Caliber SRT4:

For all intents and purposes your adult self should never be consulted regarding vehicle purchases or breakfast cereal.

That is all.

Wise words, those.

Cooking; Symphony & Clientele; Ghostland Observatory; Car bullshit & Woodrow's

Once again, we have a post written, but not posted, within a reasonable time after it occurred. Maybe that means it contains something interesting...

5/14

Since the last time the Good Eats episode on garlic came on, I had been wanting to make Alton's recipe for chicken and forty cloves. So, after a long overdue trip to the store, Cindy came over and we made dinner.

We started with a chicken, cut into pieces, salted and (lemon) peppered, and then browned. Tossed it a pot with some olive oil, the 40 cloves (actually, more, because you can never have too much garlic), and some sprigs of thyme. We added a little white wine for good measure. Baked it for a while.

Garlic gets its sharp flavor from a chemical reaction that occurs when cell walls break; if you cook it whole, the the enzymes denature before teh cell walls break, the compound doesn't form, and the garlic has a nice, sweet flavor, so the dish doesn't end up being all that garlicky. The olive oil picks up a lot of flavor from the chicken, thyme, garlic, and wine, and if you put it on some toasted french bread along with the garlic cloves and some fresh cut tomato, you've got some nice bruschetta.

We also cooked some fresh green beans. We steamed them first, and then cooked them up with a little olive oil, some more white wine, a poblano pepper, some tomato, lemon juice, and more garlic.

All in all, a great dinner, accompanied by some good TV: the penultimate episode of Heroes for the season.

5/15

Band practice; the first one in a while. We were a little rusty...

5/16

I heated up the leftover chicken and, once again, had a nice dinner. Cindy came over and we watched Lost.

5/17

Our final set of tickets for the symphony was Gershwin. They played a Cuban piece, a piano-based something that I wasn't familiar with, "Porgy & Bess", and "An American in Paris". Good stuff all the way around, but it didn't top my favorite part of the season, the Sibelius piece they did.

Afterwards, a quick jaunt over to Walter's for a concert. We missed seeing Beach House, which was a big disappointment, but made it just in time for the Clientele.

Unfortunately, the audience was horrible. Wouldn't fucking shut up. I'm afraid it pissed off the band, though I hope it didn't. It was hard to get past that to enjoy the show, but I guess the band was good, if not as good as the last time I saw them there. It was nice being back at Walter's. If I've been there since the Two Gallants show, I can't remember when.

5/18

I'm convinced that my now former funding organization requires me to go to these conferences/symposiums/retreats to pad out their numbers. This one was in Galveston, on the UTMB campus. I showed up a little late, put up my poster, ran out to my car to get my laptop during a break, sat through talks, and then headed on back to Houston.

Back in town, I dropped a labmate off, gave Cindy a ride to pick up her car, and then dropped by home for a little while. Cindy had brought me some leftovers from a lunch she had been to, so we had dinner and some beers before heading to the Warehouse to meet up with Greg and then girlfriend Jessica to catch Ghostland Observatory.

Although the security staff were characteristically dickish (and I had to walk back to the car to drop my pocket knife off, though it had never been a problem before, and I probably could have snuck it in but decided not to fuck with it further), the show was great. I'm still not a big fan of the group, but I have to say that for once, being in the big room made a show better. The band seemed energized by the crowd, and they put on a fun show with their crazy dance disco.

After that, Cindy and I picked up some Taco C and then caught up on the season finales of Grey's Anatomy (reaction: WTF?) and the Office (expertly done as usual).

5/19

One more day of conference. I showed up just in time to join Char, Angela, and Char's labmate Jilian at the Mosquito Café, which was cute, but a bit yuppie. During my 15 minute wait to order, I had to listen to the past-her-prime twenty-something in front of me ramble on about wedding plans. The interior had that same all-wood, house feel as, say, Café Azul in Austin. I opted for the pulled pork sandwich with fruit chutney and a house salad. The salad was a little plain, and the pork was bland, but it was good with the chutney. The balcony we sat at overlooked the patio, and it was all lined with various well-kept plants. On a beautiful day, the fact that I may not have picked the best meal in the place didn't matter; it was nice to be there.

After that, back to the conference for a while and then we cut out early, got some beer, and walked the strand, which is, in my estimation, a tourist trap.

So eventually I headed back to Houston, stopped for gas, and noticed that some fucker had backed into my car at some point, leaving white paint and some deep scratches, a couple of which went through the paint.

So after picking up laundry and heading to Susan and Jerry's, I got a car wash (which was on my agenda anyway) and then went to work with the wax. It looked better, definitely, but there was some paint I couldn't get out, and of course the deepest scratches I could do nothing for. I fumed about that for the rest of the weekend. Damn my luck with cars.

Anyway, I got home, had some time to chill, and eventually met up wtih Char, his siser, and Angela up at Woodrow's where Will was working. Cindy joined us eventually and we had a nice night there.

5/20

Which brings us to what is, at the time of writing, today. It's been a quiet day. I'm still pissed off about the car, considering my options, but other than that it's been nice and restful, with a sprinkling of productivity here and there.

Mazdaspeed 3

This video makes me warm and fuzzy inside.

Update: If any of you found the least bit interesting, here's a story on Autoblog with more info and more videos. Of particular note is that this was the driver's first time behind the wheel of the MS3 and first time around the 'ring.

Price/Performance Ratio

Price versus performance is often talked about, but considering that these two things obviously have the makings of a ratio, it's surprising nobody ever does so. So it's nice to see that the free online car Magazine Winding Road has a nice article proposing a measure of price/performance for cars.

It's far from complete, with performance only considering power (horse power, that is) to weight ratio, but it's a reasonably handy statistic and I'd like to see it referred to more often.

And guess who comes out on top? It's the Ariel Atom! Except we'll skip that one as it's basically a kit car, their motto is "No Door. No Screen. No Roof." and it's obviously not a daily driver.

Next up? The Mazdaspeed 3! Nicely done, Mazda, nicely done.

I guess motorcycles would totally dominate this category, in a way similar to that in which the Atom does. So when you look at the numbers, you obviously have to judge practicality on your own terms. But still, nifty.

Cheap date night; Sabrina & Ghostland Observatory; Arcade Fire leaks & blues; Pool; Car show & school stuff

1/22

It had been a while since we'd taken advantage of cheap date night (actually now it may be "student night" which isn't as good of a name, though it may be more accurate) at the Angelika. Cindy had been wanting to see Pan's Labrynth, so she, Will and I went and enjoyed the cheap ticket, free popcorn and soda.

The movie was, I guess, a disappointment. It tells of a girl's escapism, using a fantasy world to avoid and confront the problems she encounters in living through the Spanish Revolution. But the fantasy world really wasn't the focus on the movie, and it didn't complement the film's plot as well as I would have liked. Not a bad piece of flimmaking, but not spectacular, either.

Afterwards, we drug Will out to the Proletariat to see Dan DJ. Will eventually got a little bored and Leroy came by to pick him up, but I think we all enjoyed the beer and tunes.

1/23

Band practice, except I forgot my laptop. My keyboard plugs into it and is basically just an input device; the laptop turns the button presses into music. But the keyboard is USB, and there shouldn't have been any problem plugging it into Jeff's home theater PC. Except there was. So we messed with it for an hour or so, our efforts confounded by the week wireless signal his PC was receiving.

Eventually we gave up. I played on Jeff's Moog instead, but I realy a lot on chords, and analog synths only produce one note at a time. It wasn't half bad, though, and I certainly wouldn't deny that the Moog is a nice piece of gear.

1/25

Sabrina and I had not hung out in quite some time; the last time I had seen her was probably after the Joanna Newsom show (and her finals), so we caught up over Mexican food and margs at Chuy's; see Sabrina's account of the evening for more information. Needless to say, it was some much-needed hanging out time and a lot of fun.

Afterwards, Cindy and I met up with Greg, who had recruited us to go (for free!) to the Ghostland Observatory show. I knew next to nothing about the group. Turns out they're a duo; one wears a cape and works the electronics, while the other, at least at first, appears to be either a slim, flat-chested girl with pigtails, or a very slim boy with pigtails. Turns out it's the latter. He does the vocals, dances around, and provides the charisma while the other guy provides the beats.

The music is, perhaps obviously, dancy. Not quite my thing, but they're good at what they do, and I enjoyed it, particularly once I was a few beers into the evening.

They managed to sell out the Warehouses' small room, which surprised the hell out of me since I hadn't heard of them. Cindy reminded me (and reminded me again last time I brought it up) that they had been big on the festival circuit and that not every band blows up because of Pitchfork.

1/26

I'm sitting in Friday afternoon seminar when I get a text from Dan: the new Arcade Fire album has leaked.

In case past posts didn't make it clear, I'm a big fan. They're great on record, they're great live. They rock, they have complex, multi-instrumental arrangements. They're emotionally touching. They're sad but hopeful; enthusiastic, even.

So I've been waiting very impatiently for a follow-up to their 2004 debut album, and when I had a chance to get my hands on it, it became a priority. I stuck around for the beer after seminar, but as soon as I got home I threw the copy that Dan had sent me on the stereo and had a nice listening session. And then fell asleep on the couch.

Oliver and I have this thing. He invites me to blues shows and I never come, and I invite him to rock shows and he never comes. I decided to break the cycle, and so when he invited me to come see Texas Johnny Brown at the Big Easy.

I'd never been to the bar. It's divey but by no means intimidating or scary. Oliver and crew had a table, and pitchers kept coming, so after providing one of my own, I grabbed a seat and soaked in the blues. The blues are one of those genres like jazz and classical that I enjoy but don't claim to know anything about, so I certainly won't attempt to critique this old African-American's art. But it certainly sounded good to me, and a couple of beers in with those soothing sounds hitting me, I felt like life didn't get any better.

Plus, I had the Arcade Fire to return home to!

1/27

Cindy and I hit up Mai's for a late dinner, and then Joined up with Char, Angela, BT (that's "Black Tiffany") and a friend of hers at Slick Willie's for some pool. As usual, Cindy schooled all of us and I sucked. But I don't have to be good to enjoy it.

1/28

Char picked me up and we went to the Reliant convention center to check out the Houston car show. For what was essentially advertising, a $10 entrance fee seemed a bit pricey, but it was fun. I enjoyed checking out the "obtainable" cars more than the exotics, particularly things like the Mazdaspeed 3, RX-8, and CX-7; the VW Golf GTI; the Subaru Impreza WRX wagon and WRX STI rally car, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo, and, slightly less realistically, Audi's various A and S offerings (I'm particularly fond of the A3) and some of BMW's stuff. Of course, looking at the exotic stuff was fun too, but it's more fun to play the "what car do I want to buy when I have a nice job and am out of grad school" game than the "if I could pick any one car, what would it be game?".

Afterwards, I had to get up to school to get some work done and get some shit done.

MazdaPi

I'm almost ashamed I didn't come up with this.

But not really.

Wankel My Ride

In case I have any gear heads or aspiring gear heads amongst my readership, or if any of you don't believe that I'm sort of into this whole car thing now...

...Mazda has a nice overview of the history and technology of the Wankel rotary engine. Oh, sweet, sweet RX-8, I will drive you some day. Perhaps even own you...

Joanna Newsom; Thai; Car Bullshit; Bars; Jim's Birthday

12/11

The Prole, probably.

12/12

Pitchfork liked Joanna Newsom's first album of harp-based folk, but I didn't. I can only recall making it through the thing once, and I'm pretty sure I compared her vocals to a "retarded chipmunk", and not even favorably. So when her new album came out, I was prepared to pass it up, but for three little words/one big name: "Van Dyke Parks". The man apparently orchestrated Joanna's latest, and, knowing what he did for Brian Wilson's Smile, I gave it a chance on those grounds alone.

I wasn't convinced. It had potential, but I didn't exactly like it. But Cindy caught wind of her coming show in Houston and suggested we go, and as it was at the fabled Orange Show, which I had heard of three years previously when Dan, Kristin, Toni et al went to see Bonnie Prince Billy there and spoke of the place in hushed tones. It also helped that they're associated with such Houston ventures as the beer can house and the art car parade.

We arrived at the Orange Show, which was located off I-45, a little east of the U of H camps, a part of the city which I'd only been near to a) go to a law school party and b) collect my car after it had been towed. The neighborhood seemed nice enough; in Waco parlance I might draw comparisons to certain Hewitt neighborhoods. I wondered how the residents felt about having such an attraction taking up all their street parking.

There were people. Lots of 'em. The show had sold out; thankfully Cindy had been committed enough to the show to buy tickets for us and her friends Tyson and Louisa. We gave them their tickets and ventured in.

The venue gave an impression that was equal parts circus/carnival and paddle-wheel dixie-land boat. Inside was quite maze-like, with hallways carved out of the space between different buildings, stairs going off in every which direction to balconies overlooking the performance space, two bars, a screen and projector in a separate seating area, and benches immediately surrounding the performance area.

The "stage" itself looked like it might have been a fountain at some point. There was a circular wall a foot or two high around it, and the band's equipment was set up inside this circle.

We got some beer and then decided to stake out a position, settling on the smallest of several balconies (well, really a roof top) with no seating unlike the rest of them.

All in all, the venue was incredible. I guess the capacity is relatively low, so people don't play there often, but man, I wish that weren't the case. The whimsical architecture was flat out fun, and on a crisp December night it was wonderful to be sitting on top of a roof, drinking beer, spending times with friends, and listening to a concert.

Bill Callahan of Smog opened. His music, at least on first listen, was nondescript folk, but it was very serious, he had a nice voice, and maybe some good songwriting chops as well. Apparently the lucky bastard is dating the beautiful Ms. Newsom, this after previously dating Chan "Cat Power" Marshall. Nice pull, man.

Joanna came out and playe da few songs off her first record solo, some of which she usually opens with and some of which normally comprise her encore, which couldn't happen, presumably due to noise issues (and you know how we handle noise complaints in Houston). She requested that we restrict picture-taking to the first song, which seemed reasonable.

Then the band came out. One guy playing a Bulgarian tambura (think loot), which added some nice flourishes; another on accordion, which covered a surprisingly large amount of the backdrop that the orchestra provides; another on banjo/guitar; a drummer, who played percussion that was more orchestral in nature than the typical trap set and also sang harmony; and finally, a girl whose job must have been a bit boring, with some very occasional vocals and mallets.

As much as I liked what Van Dyke Parks did with the arrangements on the album, this bad fit the music much better. It was a little more folky and country; more live-action and less Disney animation. If we're lucky, she'll release a live album; the performance was nothing short of brililant. I was sold.

Jeff absolutely hates this album, and I can see why. But I can't imagine anybody that was there could have come away from the show not sold on it. I wish I could relive that night. And I hope I get to see more shows that brilliant at the Orange Show.

Afterwards, the best way to conclude such a perfect night was to grab a good dinner and some beer at Rudz. The only thing is that the Rudz burgers aren't quite what they used to be, as Eatzi's, which used to supply their delectable buns, is no longer in business. But to compensate for that, Sabrina, fresh from finishing finals, joined us for a couple rounds.

An absolutely great night. I'll add pictures later.

12/13

One of Cindy's friends had the unfortunate luck of being hit by a car while crossing a street in the med center. She'd been out of the hospital for a while, but was going back in for more surgery, and wanted a "last meal", so Cindy and I joined her and other assorted BCMers for some Thai at Nit Noi.

12/14

For some reason I drove my car in on Thursday. I left a little early with the goal of doing a little bit of Christmas shopping, in particular looking for a waffle maker for Cindy, and looking into a new cell phone for myself.

But it was not my day. The decision to drive into work and then drive straight from work to go shopping and then to take 59 to get where I was going ended up screwing me over. There was some debris on the highway, and in the dark it was hard to see. As soon as I hit it I thought I had blown a tire. I took the first exit I could, pulled off on the first side street I could, and called my roadside assistance to come change the tire for me (hey, I pay for it, you can be damned sure I'm going to use it when the opportunity presents itself). During that time I saw no less than 5 cars pull onto the same street I was on and change tires, and one guy told me he had seen ten more on the highway. Whatever I hit, it was bad, and, apparently I'm not a complete idiot.

I got the tire changed and went home, frustrated. The rim was bent. The tires are fucking expensive. It looked bad...

I think Cindy came over after that and we went for beer. I won't deny it, that helped.

12/15

Deteremined to get my car back to normal as quickly as possible, I started at Sam's Club and worked my way north, not finding any partiuclarly good deals on tires, nor good news about the rim. Eventually I ended up at Discount Tire (which isn't all that discount). They pointed me towards a place that could reshape the rim. Without driving on the highway (compact spare), it was a long drive, but I got there. Somewhere along the way, though, I had the brilliant idea to call the nice hispanic people at Rollo's Racing to see if they had a used rim they could give me. In the end, I decided it was safer to just replace the rim rather than risk having one that wasn't perfectly shaped. No sense having my year-old car not performing up to its potential.

So I went by. First they too offered to reshape the rim, but told me it woudln't be perfect, as I suspected. It turned out it wasn't quite the right rim, aesthetically, but they could get me the right one, and were even willing to loan me the non-matching one to drive around on for the rest of the day. Not only that, but the tire wasn't in fact blown; it just lost air when the rim bent. It wasn't even flat. I'm still a little paranoid that the steel belting was weakened when I hit whatever it was, but I'm trying to keep an eye on it.

So, my car fully functional if not quite matching, I finally got to stop by and look at the cell phone I wanted, confirmed that they didn't want my business enough to match Amazon's free price (and mand did they give me some bullshit about why), and then went in to work for a little while before going to get my new wheel once Rollo's got it in.

Later that night, Cindy and I met Will, Char and Angela at Little Woodrow's for some much-needed beer.

12/16

After visiting my aunt and uncle, I did some quick shopping for Cindy at Barnes & Noble and Target.

Once I got home and hid the stuff, Cindy came by and we met up with the Dan crew for some beers at the Harp. Darts were thrown as well.

12/17

Jeff and Jim had been wanting to throw a party at their swank new place ever since they had moved in a month before. The occasion was Jim's birthday, so Cindy and I grabbed some beer and went over for some drinking and socializing. Good times. Awesome townhouse.

Cindy ended up a bit drunk, so we came back to my place, I got her put to bed, and then got some good Zelda time in before taking the plunge and ordering the phone from Amazon.

I'd never been entirely satisfied with my Motorola that I'd bought in February of '05. The form factor wasn't particularly impressive, the features weren't compelling, and the interface was complete crap. A smart phone seemed to be the only way to get something that was actually useful. Palm's ran on an OS that was essentially 10 years old. Others ran Windows Mobile, and I'm pretty sure daily use of that would end with a loss of sanity or happiness. That left Blackberry, and their new Pearl was the first smart phone in a compelling form factor that I had seen. So, I went for it. More on that later...

Austin; More Ben Folds

Real-time interlude: I started this entry, well, a couple weeks back, and just haven't gotten back to it. I realize everyone is tired of being three months behind on my life. I'm trying. Really.

It's a nice Sunday afternoon, and Dan's on his way over to teach me to drive stick. I'm pretty sure this is an experience I should have had about 8 years ago, involving my dad yelling at me, but I suppose Dan can be the surrogate for that.

11/3

Cindy and I got a slightly late start on our trip to Austin, but not too bad. My primary purpose in going was to catch Ben Folds doing a proper rock show at Stubb's; Cindy was going to celebrate her friend Sarah's birthday. Cindy had considered picking up an iPod shuffle for Sarah's birthday; I insisted that we get the sexy new clip-on one, and this just happened to be its first day on sale. We took a slight detour to Best Buy, and walked out with the player with minimal fuss.

So, back on the road. Saw the very sexy Cadillac XLR on the way to Austin for the first time; it's a nice combination of sports car sleekness and interesting angularity—shame it's made by GM.

We got into town, hitting a little traffic on the way in due to a wreck, and consequently we were running a bit late. I had to get Cindy dropped off in Southwest Austin, which, as I've probably mentioned, isn't that far away, but it was a bit of a pain. Then I had to go by Becca's place to pick up her friend Ali because, hey, Ali doesn't like to drive (I don't get those people). Then downtown, to find Becca, who didn't answer her phone the first 57 times we called. Then, finally, parked, and we started the walk to Stubbs, stopping off at Mug Shots for a drink so the girls could use the bathroom (a little counter-productive, I suppose), before reaching the venue, getting more drinks, and finding a spot in the crowd. We caught the end of opener Corn Mo's set; I had previously enjoyed his Meatloaf-They Might Be Giants-Freddie Mercury-Weird Al shennanigans, I wished we had caught more of the set, but he at least won over the girls.

Ben came out and played a good show. He kept going on about an expensive new red keyboard he had bought and worked very hard to incorporate it into the songs to prove its usefulness. The backing band was sufficient but barely notable. A highlight was hearing him cover "Such Great Heights", which I had previously only seen via YouTube.

The show was good, and, though it couldn't match the earlier Houston show, it was hardly a disappointment.

Afterwards, we crossed the street to Club DeVille, whose cool back patio bounded on the back side by a rock cliff gave it a nice atmosphere, and it was a good place to be on such a crisp night. Drinks were had, etc. It struck me as a good place to see a small show, potentially (SxSW?)

We stopped by Jimmy John's on 6th and got some food (and here I shall note that, thank God, Houston has a Jimmy John's that opened up this very week), enjoying the theater of the drunk people trying to use the restroom without purchase, or with bribe. I remarked that seemed like a pretty good deal to the cashier, who reminded me that he had to clean up after the drunkards. Point taken.

Back to Becca's, where there was some wrestling with an uncooperative futon before going to sleep. Becca doesn't turn her heat on, which is just how I like it.

11/4

After a leisurely morning, thoughts turned to food, and Becca and I debated between eating in or going out, finally compromising on a light snack at her apartment and then a walk down the street to Azul. Like so many great places, it was in an old house, very homey. But we weren't inside long; just enough to order some kind of egg muffin sandwich to split and two Shiner 97s before we went out to their wonderful patio. Old, rusted furniture and tables presented themselves for our use; our food was brought out on an antique tray, and the friendliness of the place, the interesting landscaping which just barely cut off the outside world, and the warm fire conspired to make me want to stay there for the rest of the afternoon.

We didn't, though, and decided to go music shopping and then to get beer. Cindy wanted to join us, so once again we went out to Sarah's place to pick her up, and then back to down town to do some shopping at Waterloo records. Apparently our timing was perfect, as Waterloo was having a spectacularly good anniversary sale. I stocked up on a number of CDs I'd been meaning to pick up, and notably the DVD of Ben's first orechestral performence with the Western Australia Symphony Orchestra, which featured a number of the same songs/arrangements from the show earlier in the week (though it omitted some material that, well, wasn't written back when the show took place).

I wanted to swing by Lovejoy's for some bizeer, but it was getting late and the littlest Ward was getting hungry, so we went to the barbecue joint she had picked out, Artz Rib House.

Let me first point out that Rebecca taking me to a barbecue place would have, up until a year or so ago, been a minor miracle. Becca came back from a trip to France in high school a vegetarian, and remained that way. I have Taco Cabana to thank for providing Becca's meat gateway drug: bacon.

So anyway, barbecue it was. Beers were ordered, and most of us settled on some variation of... (wait for it)... ribs. Their specialty was "country-style" ribs, that is, the biggest damned ribs you could imagine, which really had a lot in common with pork chops, at least in terms of size. I lobbied for combining that with an order of baby back ribs, but Cindy wanted her own order (which I knew she couldn't finish), so Becca and I split an order of the country-style ribs and a sausage wrap. The sides left a bit to be desired, and our service was... iffy, but there's no denying that those ribs were a nice cut of meat.

It continued getting late. We made for HEB to pick up some beverages and the necessary supplies with which to wrap Sarah's gift. They had gift bags, sure, but you know what was even better? Red & white striped popcorn bags! Yep. It was inspired.

I also learned that HEB will not sell beer to you if you have only a passport and not a driver's license. Who the fuck came up with that one? If anything a passport is even more valid identification than a driver's license? And isn't it even better to be buying beer if you don't have a driver's license, because that means you're less likely to be driving drunk? Suck it, HEB. And also, can I have more of your awesome fresh salsa? Thanks.

So we made for Sarah's friend's place over in Austin, which was in reasonably familiar territory.

We got there and Rebecca and I, at least, felt a little bit out of place. Most people there had kids. I think Sarah knew a lot of them from some kind of single parents' group. But after a beer or so, the conversation shifted to Built to Spill and I suddently felt not so out of place.

Courtney returned my earlier call and invited us to her place, so Becca and I took our temporary leave and headed south to Courtney's, which, it turns out, is just a couple blocks back from Becca's.

We walked to the corner store for some beer and Courtney's very well-behaved dog (who didn't even give a sidelong glance when a very angry and scary dog behind a fence along the route barked very loudly and charged the fence). And then we hung out, drinking beer. That's it. It was nice.

Courtney had to be up early for a bike ride the next morning, so we left, I dropped Becca off, and I rejoined the party. And then Cindy and I went and spent the night at Becca's.

11/5

We got up for lunch at Hoover's, as it was Becca's friend's last day working there. We were a ways back on the list, and probably wouldn't have made it in time for breakfast, so Becca's friend suggested we comandeer the table she had just cleared. This was blamed on us, for her sake, and we got a dirty look from the host, but hey, it worked.

I had the honey-drizzled chicken tenders and biscuits, which were quite good.

Anyway, after that it was time to make our way back to Houston. Which we did.

Car and Proletariat; Practice; Freebird's, BB&B, Holly; Tapatia, Village; The Village (again); Guitar Center and BBQ

7/24

Cindy and I left early to pick up my car from The Other Body Shop. It was way the fuck out west, near where Dan used to live (like a quarter mile away from his old house). I saw it sitting in the lot and noticed that a) they neglected to removed the tire rubber marks from the paint and b) they neglected to replace the cracked plastic on the grill. What, did they do the whole fucking repair blind folded? The incompetence is staggering. Simply staggering. Rather than let them do touch my car again, I told them that I was taking it and would let the other shop finish up their shoddy work.

Joke's on them, though, because I never actually paid the deductible.

I enjoyed driving it home, of course, though I was pissed about having to deal with more repairs, and all over a fucking tire tread from an 18 wheeler.

Anyway, later that evening it was another Monday night at the Proletariat, which I was free to actually drive to. What a luxury!

7/25

Another night of band practice. I got Whataburger for dinner on the way home, which is always nice.

7/26

Cindy's birthday was coming up, so I stopped by Bed, Bath and Beyond and picked up the magnetic spice rack she wanted. Stopped off on the way home at Freebird's for a burrito, which I hadn't done in quite some time.

Holly, who I kind of sort of dated a year or so previously, was back in town and I caught up with her and her mom for a round at Two Row's, and I remembered why I don't ever go there for dollar beers anymore: it's fucking crowded.

7/27

Took the car back by Foreign Auto Body ("the good place") and they got the rubber off the paint, which was nice. They ordered the part for the grille, and told me that I could come back in when the part was delivered and they'd install it while I waited.

Got back home in time for Holly to pick me up, and we went to Tapatia for lunch and had a little more time to catch up before she dropped me off at school.

Went to the village that night with Cindy. Had a couple rounds at the Ginger Man, then went next door to Woodrow's, where Char and some of the other usual suspects were. I was enjoying a beer when I saw a tow truck drive by with my car.

I had parked in a spot that was, technically speaking, signed as tow away, though the sign was pretty nonobvious, nailed to a telephone pole at the very corner of the street and about three feet off the ground. People parked there all the time, and still do. Dunno if it was a new pig, or if Houston was feeling poor, or if somebody was on a power trip, but I got fucked.

Took me a while to track down the car, but I eventually went to pick it up, only to see a ticket on the windshield. Grand total was about $250, which I have added to my karma list. This list includes the city of Houston for around $260 (the extra $10 is a recent addition that I'll explain when the time comes), the apartment complex for $50 (erased when I managed to get an extra month at my old rent, and get a cheaper rent than I was originally quoted when I renewed), and $2 at Sam's Roadhouse for making me pay a cover for their crappy bar (also to be explained later). Probably more entities that have screwed me out of money, but those are the ones I remember off the top of my head.

7/28

Cindy had been talking up Reggae Hut for a while, so we settled on that for her birthday dinner. It was located on Almeda, and we parked in the lot behind the building and went in. The walls were brightly colored and the place sparsely but likably decorated. I felt very white, but in a culturally immersed sort of way, not a threatening sort of way.

We settled on an order of plantains as an appetizer, an order of jerk chicken, and an order of curried goat. The plantains were given to us immediately and had been cooked to a dark color. Our meals came next. Both were served with some very well-seasoned and tasty veggies, and black beans and rice. The goat was OK. It was very much like lamb, except maybe a bit stringier. The curry seasoning was fairly light.

The jerk chicken, however, was incredible. The meat was flavorful but also moist. The jerk seasoning was spicy but oh-so-tasty. The portions were generous on all counts, and we had at least a meal's worth of leftovers. Consider me a convert.

Afterwards, sraight to Little Woodrow's (carefully choosing my parking this time). We had a few drinks there before things got a little too crowded, and we recruited Char and Angela to go to Hans' Bier Haus. As always, I enjoyed the nice selection of beer but also ran my tab up a little higher than I might like to.

This visit, we decided to try out bocci ball, which I have concluded is the ultimate drunken game, combining positive aspects of pool (rolling and colliding balls), shuffleboard (distance-based accuracy), bowling (hand-rolling), and croquet (but with less frustration). Great fun all around.

7/29

Mom and Dad had agreed to fund a little birthday spending, so I opted for some implements of rocking. I got one of those x-style keyboard stand, which turned out to not be an ideal design for my small and light keyboard (which was later remedied), but also a little shaky on carpet. I also got a keyboard bag which turned out to be a little big, but the extra size ended up being useful in solving my stand problem. Finally, I happened to see the official songbook for Ben Folds' Songs for Silverman and figured I'd grab that, too.

Levi was working and he hooked me up, saving me (or I guess Mom and Dad) a ton of money.

Cindy and I were invited to a couple of barbecues that weekend. The one thrown by her friends started first, so we headed up to the Heights to partake, bringing with us chicken and sausage to grill. There was other good food around, including ice cream cake. We took off a ltitle while later, and I checked in with Anup to discover that his barbecue had ended, so we grabbed some movies and headed back to my place for films and cocktails.

First up was The Squid and the Whale, which was painfully and realistically awkward and had the air of a more serious, more caustic Wes Anderson flick, which makes sense since it turns out he produced the thing. Great movie, but not exactly uplifting.

We also rented (but didn't watch at that time) Sarah Silverman's Jesus Is Magic which was, frankly, crap. There was something else, too, that I watched later, but I can't recall right now.

Dallas; Waco; Car Bullshit

7/14

The drive to Dallas was farily uneventful; some rain, some music, and a stop for caffeine and gas were among the highlights. I rolled into town, checked out Bryan's new place, and soon Phil joined us and we took off for Lower Greenville. Phil suggested Stout (Thanks to Bryan for the assist on the name) where we started the beer drinking and ordered a few appetizers (though they were disturbingly seafood driven).

The hour rolled around for the concert du jour, so we made for Deep Ellum (where I hadn't been since... oh, maybe the Guster show of 2003). We were there to see Camera Obscura do their best Belle & Sebastian impression at the Gypsy Tearoom/Ballroom. Phil and Bryan were confused by the number of people in full punk regalia going into the ballroom, but I figured there was no way a bunch of alternateens were showing up for a twee pop band. Turns out that Rancid (Bryan confirms) were playing in the ballroom (the larger of the two), whereas CO were playing the more intimate tearoom (which I preferred anyway). The two halves of the venue did share a bathroom, though, which made for an interesting juxtaposition of P!O!P! kids and punks.

I opened a tab and got to work. Phil had brought some cigaretes along so I indulged (haveing reached that level of drunkeness). I picked out a new t-shirt. The band was solid live; pretty much reproducing the album. It was enjoyable, but didn't really add anything to the experience.

Phil took us back to Bryan's, and then Bryan, Lisa and I made a TC run.

7/15

Slept nice and late before Bryan and I started the lamb we were going to have for dinner. The next order of business was lunch, so we went once again to Lower Greenville for some good mediterranean at Ali Baba, the highlight of which was the creamy humus and crispy falafel.

Good Records' new digs were nearby, so we went in to check out the space. Space was one thing there was plenty of, particularly around their new stage, which I'm sure makes for great in store performances. As usual, the selection and curation of the stock was top notch, and I was wishing that I had some spare funds to pick up a few things.

Next to the liquor store, where we bought supplies for Mexican Martinis, I picked up a bottle of Lindemann's Framboise for Bryan to try, and I had a random encounter with Tromboner Justin Lewis from high school.

Then the grocery store to get some veggies to go with dinner and a few other items, and then back to Bryan and Lisa's palatial apartment to start the cooking. I did some grilled veggies tossed in olive oil, seasoning, and tequila, and we had a nice dinner.

Some Dr. Mario was played (I might have even won a game), and then we did some swimming over at the house of some of Lisa's relatives.

7/16

Slept in, and then Kelly and Phil came by after church and we went for lunch at Old Monk (thanks again, Bryan—do you remember what we drank?), a charming British pub-ish sort of setup. Phil, Bryan and I all ordered some good beer. After looking at the menu, I settled on the burger with my choice of fancy cheese. I couldn't resist trying the Irish whiskey cheddar, which did indeed make for a tasty burger.

After that, it was time to take off, so I got on the rode to Waco.

Along the way, an eighteen-wheeler about three cars ahead of me had a blowout, and the tire was pretty much unavoidable. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but after travelling 35 south to Waco, I made a turn only to hear a scraping sound. I pulled over and noticed that a plastic piece under the car was hanging down so I reached down and put it back into place, but then my eyes caught a rather large dent in my front bumper, and cracked plastic in my grille.

Damned 18 wheelers. Fucking NAFTA. If they're not trying to kill me, they're trying to fucking damage my car.

Anyway, I tried to ignore that for the time being and enjoyed some time with my parents. Once they had decided to call it an evening, I undertook the tedious task of sorting through some of my old comics to find some stuff that I wanted to bring to Houston to reread and to pass along to Will.

7/17

I had not made time for my yearly cardiology appointment in Waco over the Christmas holiday, so I took Monday off to accomplish that. Once I had gotten a clean bill of health and packed up my stuff, I met mom for lunch at Panera before heading back to Houston.

On the way I fired up the bluetooth headset and started making calls about getting my car taken care of. After dropping my luggage off back at the apartment, I went once again to take my car to the body shop. They informed me that they were busy but that they had a sister shop that would work on it, and I could even just leave the car there and that they would take care of everything. It sounded good to me (but too bad it wasn't). I called up Char to come pick me up, figuring that he probably didn't have anything better to do.

In the process I offended Cindy by not having called her first, which I did because I knew she wouldn't be able to get away from school. Of course, I was right, and I think she realized it after she thought through the logic of the situation.

So anyway, the Ward car curse continued to haunt me, and since the accident was classified as a road hazard rather than a real accident, no rental car this time around. On the other hand, the deductible was to only be $50, which was a huge relief. Still, two trips to the body shop within four months was not cool...