Expensive drinks and meals with recruiting; Sabrina's birthday; house party

3/19

Another recruiting dinner at school, followed by more free drinks at the Volcano. I don't know why I didn't think about going to an expensive bar on somebody else's tab sooner.

3/20

We had one recruit who ended up staying an extra day, and Merry-Lynn and I were asked to take him to dinner. Since it was only a few of us, I figured it was a good time to go somewhere nice, and selected Benjy's, which I had wanted to go to for a long time, but due to the expense had never actually done so.

It was nice, and had good service. I was most impressed with the appetizer we ordered, tuna steak spring rolls. My steak was enjoyable, as steak always is, but unremarkable. I'd probably try to order something more adventurous if I went there again.

3/23

In celebration of her birthday, Sabrina got a group together to go to Lupe Tortilla. After struggling through the throngs of children that had infected the place, and wandering around its maze-like interior, we eventually found Sab & co. at (where else?) the bar, and so started in on margaritas.

Dinner was good; they had pretty good fajitas. The menu seemed to be making fun of Mexican accents, which struck me as odd.

After that, we moved to Absinthe, down Richmond from the Proletariat. The interior was nice; the bar itself hard little to recommend itself and the crowd seemed fairly midtown. A nice time was had, and perhaps the bar would be appropriate to return to for certain situations, but it's not somewhere I see myself going often.

I do remember there was a beautiful car in the parking lot, though. Either a Ferrari or a Lambo; I can't remember and I don't really pay much attention to car models that I'm very unlikely to every be in the market for. But it was beautiful.

3/24

Dan had lined up a house party for us in a neighborhood near me. It was a benefit for someone; maybe medical bills? I dropped a ten and sort of forgot. Seemed like a fair exchange for access to the keg. It was a pretty cool house, and a pretty cool neighborhood, and a pretty cool party. Thumbs up all around. And Cindy drove so I cut loose a bit. Also cool.

I want to go to more house parties. Maybe I need more friends with houses.

3/25

I continued my 24 DVD addiction, something which would soon fall by the wayside, despite the fact that I have a couple seasons to go, at least.

Politics; Recruiting; Symphony; Museum; Laser Tag

2/19

Another night of Dan spinning at the Proletariat. Greg was there and Cindy and I talked with him about his... interesting political views. Fairly... conspiratorial ones, and very... theoretical. I can see people suggesting that 9/11 was perhaps allowed by our government. Tt being perpetrated by Americans; ideas of concentrations camps being built in America; that it doesn't matter which political party controls the government; a government with biological and nanotechnology years ahead of what academics knows about, it's all just too fantastic. It's hard for me to understand how someone can accept so many improbably things at once.

2/22

I was asked by our current admin Amy to perform a task which I'm always glad to take on, that of buying beer for the recruiting dinner. So I dropped that off at school in the morning, had lunch with our recruits, and had a nice free lunch with the recruits (none of whom really stand out), went about my normal work day, went to the on-site dinner... let's pause here. A lousy catered dinner in a fluorescently-lit classroom is not the way to wow recruits. I realize that it lets more faculty come, because faculty are flaky, but really, who cares? Schedule a mixer or something, and then let us take the recruits out for dinner somewhere nice. Please?

After that, we did get to take them out for drinks. Sensing an opportunity, I chose the Volcano, which, with their specialty drinks and general pricey-ness. It was, as was expected, a nice setting, and the drinks were good. Cindy never quite was persuaded that it was OK to take advantage of my program's budget, but I bought her a couple of drinks.

2/23

Galleria, Pappasito's, School, Home, Symphony, Hans'

The recruits had a free morning, and one of them wanted to go to Tiffany's to buy something for his wife. When it's recruiting time I'm in the business of a) getting free food and booze and b) keeping the recruits happy, so we headed off to the galleria, while I gave a running commentary on the city.

Afterwards we met up at Pappasito's, and, having learned my lesson about ordering pitchers of margaritas and thus not getting the premium ones, I instead made sure to order my own margarita this year. Or maybe two; I forget. I again chose to push for the grilled platter with its abundance of fajitas, sausage, quail, ribs, and shrimp.

And then of course I couldn't quite stay awake through Mike's thesis defense when we got back to BCM.

After that, I skipped seminar to go home and iron for our first date with the Houston Symphony, which was a pleasure (though I may have nodded off a couple of times there, too). Afterwards we met up with Char, Angela, etc. for some bier at Hans'. Sadly, no recruits wanted to go out, so no freebies.

2/24

After running a quick errand at Best Buy for Will (more on that later) on the way home from Susan and Jerry's. Afterward, I placed a quick call to Dan to see if he was going to that night's mixed media night at the MFAH. Dan was previously thought to have a date, and had set up his whole VIP thing, but by the time I called it had fallen through, so I picked him up, went home to change, and then we went to the museum, VIP access and all. As soon as we got there we started in on the free booze. I ran into Cindy's roommate Sarah and her boyfriend and hooked them up with some free drinks, because I could. Cindy herself was at a bachelorette party. Dan and I continued the drinking and socializing.

As the party was wrapping up, Dan asked if I could fit a bicycle in my car. This was a little confusing, as neither of us had come with a bicycle, but I answered the question in the affirmative. Turns out there were a couple of young ladies that wanted a ride to the after party. I had a great time the last time I went to an afterparty with Dan, so I figured, hell, why not?

Turns out the young ladies really were young. Nineteen young. After getting directions to the party from a confused friend of theirs via cell phone who kept wondering exactly who I was ("Dude, I'm the driver!"), we headed over to the warehouse district. Dan got us in free thanks to knowing the door guy, and we got in on the free keg action. Ironically labeled "drank" (probably just vodka and fruit juice) was also being served, for a price.

We all left to hang out with the girls and their friends while they "smoked out" as the kids say, which normally I would have been quite paranoid about being around in public, but I had been plied all evening with free booze, so I was decidedly easy-going.

Anyway, more free drinks, socializing, etc. and then it was time to call it a night.

2/25

I had a solid hangover the next day, so I was a bit late getting to Baker's birthday party out west near Char's place at the go kart track/laser tag arena. I got there in time to watch the guys do a few laps on the track, but there was a game of laser tag which I got in on, and that was pretty nifty.

By the time we got back to Char's for beer and cake, I had moved from a hangover to neck ache, so I went home for a nap. But hey, good times that weekend, so it was all worth it.

Little Children; Valentine's Day; Dan & Modest Mouse; Bowling; Chinese New Year

2/12

Will and I resumed our Angelika Mondays with the viewing of Little Children, a tale of suburban ennui, extramarital affairs, and child molesters. It was certainly an interesting exploration of its themes. It's been a while so not all of my impressions are still remembered, but I think I was a little iffy on its conclusions. I could go back and read up on it, but movie reviews aren't exactly an emphasis of mine.

One thing I will comment on is this: if you go into a nearly empty theater, do not sit directly in front of the other people in the theater, particularly if seating options are plentiful. Sometimes, people like to put their feet up, or not have to listen to your idiotic chattering. It's not a big deal, exactly, except that it doesn't hurt you to fucking sit somewhere else. It really doesn't. All things being equal, if you have a choice between inconveniencing someone you dont' know, and not doing it, just don't. It's that simple.

2/13

Cindy and I decided once again to cook our own Valentine's Day dinner, so I spent my time going to the grocery store, etc.

2/14

There was morning run to pick up flowers and some last minute items from Central Market.

And then I ironed a shirt, got dressed up fancy, and started on dinner.

I had decided to try out Alton Brown's take on meatballs. The recipe includes the use of beef, pork, and veal; parmesan cheese for flavor, bread crumbs for body (I used the Italian-seasoned variety because hey, you can't have too much flavor), spinach and egg to bind it, and some various herbs and seasonings. Cooking them in a miniature muffin tin helps heat them evenly.

With this we had some fettucini and (just a little) marinara sauce, a salad (Cindy), tomato and white bean bruschetta (the secret is slicing open a piece of garlic and rubbbing it on the freshly toasted bread) (again, Cindy), and creme brulée with real vanilla bean (again Cindy). And a bottle of wine.

It turned out really nice. The meatballs were great and I would enjoy them a lot over the next few days. I'd love to always have a batch in the refrigerator.

The entire evening was nice as well. It was probably the first meal eaten on my dining room table since, well, last Valentine's Day.

I think we ended up watching TV instead of renting a movie, but as good as TV was this spring, that worked well.

2/15

Cindy came over for TV and then left early because of a conference the next day, and then Char called and invited me out for a beer. Details escape me.

2/16

The receiver was fixed and I went to pick it up but the guy wasn't there. Whoops.

Went over to Rice for seminar, but Char and instead opted to hide out in Valhalla and drink cheap beer until seminar was over, when we could move on to the free beer.

Cindy was away at her thing, so I enjoyed a relaxing evening at home before catching up with Dan online and deciding to pick up some beer and go hang out over at his place. We listened to music (including the new Modest Mouse, which had leaked out in an event almost as big as the Arcade Fire album), had beer, chatted. It was a pretty nice evening.

2/17

Picked up the receiver in the morning and everything was in good working order. More on that shortly.

Char and I ended up going bowling with BT and her friend whose name I can never remember but was Helen Humphrey's roommate at Baylor. We opted to get some beer at the closest non-bowling alley bar to the bowling alley, Bellaire Little Woodrow's. It's a quaint little place, right next to the railroad tracks. I liked it, but drinking in the Bellaire/Southside/West U area scares the fuck out of me.

Bowling was OK. I bowled a decent game though I discovered that my Wii bowling skills didn't exactly transfer over. For the second game I decided I wanted to try to learn how to put spin on the ball.

That didn't go well.

2/18

Cindy got back from her conference and since she had decided not to go to her parents', we grabbed some brunch—I think we hit up La Mexicana again.

Later on, we went to Dacia's girlfriend Lorien's Chinese New Year party. They had put out some nice vegan springrolls and potstickers, and there was plenty of beer. Everyone was glad to see Cindy as she brough an air of legitimacy (as well as legitimate foods) to the proceedings, despite not actually being Chinese. Cindy ran into somebody she knew. We talked to Lorien's roommate who it turns out had done some PR work for Baylor and interviewed Cindy's boss. Kristin was there, as was Dan, which was a little awkward, but it didn't stop Dan from chatting up a German girl whom he seemed to get on pretty well with, although it turned out she eventually stood him up. I know how that one goes.

Anyway, great evening all in all. As I often say, I miss parties and don't get to go to enough of them.

New Toy; Shopping; Dan, Wii, TV; Lamb Stew; Dacia's Birthday; School

1/29

Got a cool vintage receiver that Oliver was getting rid of. I'll talk more about it in an upcoming post.

1/30

My hi-fi habit necessitated some new furniture. In the living room, I'd long had the crossover and amp for my subwoofer leaned up against my TV stand, the Mac mini and Wii hiding to the left and right of the TV, and the record player that Cindy had bought me was sitting on my floor in front of a plant.

In the bedroom, the subwoofer amp/crossover was also on its side up against furniture, and now that I had a new receiver I didn't have a place for. Ideally these things would go on an audio-grade stand (spiked feet, high mass, stable), but the rest of my gear isn't, and honestly there are probably better things to put money into.

So, off to IKEA for cheap furniture. I ended up with something that was either a very small TV stand or a minimalist night stand. Either way, it had two shelves appropriately sized for audio components and looked sturdier than some of their other options. They only had a light-colored finish, which wasn't ideal, but I was eager to get something accomplished, so I went for it and grabbed two.

After that, on to the grocery store, then home to assemble and set up the new furniture.

1/31

After a trip to Whole Foods, I dropped by Dan's place. Dan had managed to break his mp3 player, so I loaned him my old 4th generation iPod until he could buy a new one. Cindy was picking up sandwiches for dinner so we invited Dan to join us.

Back at my place, we indulged in some wonderful sandwiches from Jimmy John's, newly opened in Houston, and played some Wii. Dan took off and Cindy and I watched some TV.

2/1

I had, for some time, been wanting to check out Alton's recipe for lamb and barley stew. Check out the link for more, but it turned out well, and it was only a pain to clean the fat off the roast and cut it into chunks. Next time I'd just buy lamb stew meat and save myself the trouble.

2/2

Dacia's birthday @ the Mink, Dan DJs, we eat

Handily, Dacia decided to have her birthday party at the mink, and Dan happened to be DJing upstairs. I got him to guest list us so that we could move between the two. Caught a "band"/DJs who did video game remixes called Extra Man; they were awesome and I bought their CD. Dacia's girlfriend made some surprisingly good vegan cupcakes.

Dacia and co. eventually left for lesbian bar Chance's, and, curious as I was, I was also tired and hungry, so instead Cindy and I walked a couple doors down to Tacos A Go Go. It's a charming little place: appropriate decor, high ceilings, only slightly expensive, simple menu, taco-focused dining experience, appropriate late-night ambiance. Go with the corn tortillas if that's your thing; it's that kind of place.

Afterwards, we went back to the Mink and bid Dan adieu. I spared Cindy the experience of listening to my brand new Extra Man CD.

2/4

It was Super Bowl Sunday, and though there weren't any big parties in the picture, I had many things I would have rather been doing, some of which actually involved watching the game, than preparing a lab meeting presentation. Yet there I was.

School; Farewell Kristin; Genetics Retreat; Etc.

1/8

Preparration for my journal club talk. I could elaborate but that would bore all of us.

1/9

Did the journal club thing. There's this idea that some idiot came up with somewhere, that people are expected to defend and explain the articles as if we wrote them. I sidestepped that neatly. Turns out the article I picked was pretty crap, since I acknowledged it up front, I didn't even have to try to defend the article.

I figured there's nothing to get a bunch of sharks going like some fresh blood, but, well, apparently nobody cares about journal club.

I'm sure Kristin wanted to sneak off to Austin with as little fanfare as possible, but Dan put together a little good bye party for her. As we so often have, we gathered at Mi Luna for dinner.

Afterwards, continuing Kristin's trend toward the new and different, we eschewed the usual bars and went to Dirt. It's just south of I-10, not too far from Walter's. Their Tuesday gimmick is that for every drink you order, they flip a coin, and you can call it to get the drink free. After thinking about it, there's no real way for them to maniuplate it to their advantage (except for, say, doubling the prices, which is a distinct possibility). Cindy and I not only failed to beat the system, but lost to it, getting one drink out of four free. The bar itself was dark and uncrowded, and, well, I wasn't overly impressed, but I think I'd go back just for the coin flipping.

Dan's got some photos up on his Flickr page.

1/11

The boss, as usual, wanted all of us at the genetics retreat. As usual, I showed up late, skipped the talks, snuck in a nap in the hotel room, and showed my poster before starting a solid evening of drinking. I managed to obtain quite a few spare drink tickets, which helped, because the department cheaps out at two tickets per person.

As with the retreats, the party's the boring part; it's the after party where the real fun starts. I showed up with my cooler o' beer at the room of a couple of genetics girls. The girls were smart enough to realize that if you don't want to get in trouble with the hotel over the state of the room, you tip the maids. Of course, why put your own cash down when you're young and attractive and have men around to do it for you?

So the girls offered to wrestle if we could come up with $20, which wasn't too hard. Which was pretty nifty.

So the party was good. The girls had managed to get whoever was in the adjoining room to contribute their room, too, so for once we had plenty of space to spread out, and no noise complaints.

I met a nice girl named Katie, who not only had good tastes in music but was in a band too. Of course, neither of us being single, this wasn't as exciting as it could have been, but it was nice to have someone to converse with. It's funny how you can be in a place for four years and still meet cool new people whom you had no idea existed.

By the time the girls kicked everybody out, I was thoroughly drunk and went back to my room, which, due to a snafu in my registration (apparently the registration e-mails went to a different Robert Ward), I had my own room. Bizarrely, while I went to sleep in the bed by the window, I ended up waking up in the other window. No explanation for that one...

1/12

I slept in, went to lunch, and then we had to have the traditional superfluous lab outing. I took of as soon afterwards as possible, and then, I think, opted to take a nap and skip the seminar.

Cindy and I went up to Rudz for dinner after an aborted attempt to try out Goode's Armadillo Palace. Then we found out that Kristin was out at Poison Girl for her last night in town, so we joined up.

1/13

Cindy and I (eventually) made it over to Dan's to help Kristin pack up the moving truck. I was surprised to see how much of the stuff in the apartment was hers; it looked a little barren afterwards. The highlight of the experience was getting Dan's Yaris up on the trailer; he was driving the truck to Austin and needed to be able to drive his car back. The first time, we realized the trailer wasn't hitched properly and it started to tilt as soon as he started to drive up on it. After that, we realized that the wheelbase of the car was so narrow that it barely fit on the tracks of the trailer. I'm surprised no damage was inflicted.

My parents were in town, so I went to catch up with them at Susan and Jerry's for while.

I drove back, and then met up with Char for beer and pool.

1/14

I drove out for lunch with the parents. Later that night Cindy and I met up with Will and others at the West Alabama Woodrow's, and then we took off to Late Nite Pie for some belated dinner.

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...

Committee meeting; Christmas party; Shopping and Bond-age; Various parties; More shopping; Turkish people

12/4

Spent the day putting off preparing for the committee meeting, and then the evening resisting the temptation to play Wii and instead working, finally, on stuff for the committee meeting. I remember coming home late and it being cold as balls.

12/5

So the committee meeting came and went. They were mostly satisfied but suggested that I should get a paper out soon. Of course, that much was obvious. Thanks, committee!

Dead tired, I came home and took a nap. Then, having missed my usual laundry date due to the company in town the previous weekend, I caught up on that.

Char and various others gathered up at Kelvin Arms for beer in celebration of another committee meeting gone by.

12/6

Departmental party; Turks; Two Rows

Our departmental Christmas party was held at a faculty member's home, which was a great excuse to cheap out on the food and booze. Figuring nobody would show up on time, Cindy and I came fashionably late, only to discover the food gone and the beer warm. We didn't stick around long.

Instead, we went for Turkish food at Istanbul in the village. We had the Turkish pizza, but it wasn't all that great. My previous experience there, years before, had been positive, but this time I wasn't particularly impressed. The Turkish coffee was good, though.

After that, on over to Two Rows'. I'd rather pay $1 for a cold beer than drink a free warm one.

12/7

I started doing some Christmas shopping. It was expertly planned. Sam's closed at 8:30, IKEA at 9, and Bed Bath & Beyond at 9:30. I hit Sam's at 8:15, IKEA at 8:45, and BB&B at 9:15. As is traditional, I got Southern Living's Annual Recipes for Dad at Sam's. At IKEA I bought a DVD storage thingy that the full one I already had (since I had some money to spare). At BB&B, I looked at waffle irons for Cindy.

I got home from there and then met up with Cindy and Will to catch the new James Bond flick, which, as I'm sure most of you know, was excellent.

12/8

As I did last year, I joined Cindy for the neuroscience departmental Christmas party. Free food and drinks at Ouisie's; can't turn that down.

Something may or may not have gone on afterwards.

12/9

A running them for the month was having extra money. I TAed a class (which involved minimal effort) and was paid handsomely, and, the way the calendar fell that month, we got three paychecks instead of two. Plus, due to an accounting error, I'd been getting paid less than I should since June and finally got the backpay for that. So I was rolling in it.

When Jeff got me a keyboard fo rmy birthday so I could start playing with he and Vincent, it was a good start. But hell, there's only so much you can do with four octaves. So I opted to take advantage of the Levi connection and move on up. Levi got me a sweet deal on the full 88 key version of the keyboard I had, and it had semi-weighted keys, which make the feel a little more realistic. While I was there I splurged on a portable piano bench and a music stand too. All dirt cheap!

12/10

Not counting the various Asian nationals, who I don't really know anyway, the one nationality that I know the most of at school is... the Turks. There's a ton of them! Anyway, Meliz, a friend of Cindy and me, was moving away, following her boss. Vincent's girlfriend, also Turkish, was throwing her a going away party, so we went over there. There was food, nice weather, beer, and someone made mulled wine. Nice evening...

Randa's visit and Oliver's birthday; Kristin's Birthday; Jeff's Birthday and the Mink; GS Picnic; Cousin Jer and the Prole

11/7

Having been out of town all weekend I stayed in and got some laundry done. I also, having been taken in by a Wendy's commercial for that burger that has bacon, cheddar sauce, and jalapeños, went to get one... but they fucked up my order, and it wasn't worth driving back for. Stymied.

11/8

Randa (hi Randa!) was in town to catch a cruise with her mom out of Galveston, so she took the opportunity to get a Niko Niko's fix. I joined she, Brina, Shawn, and Cindy for some good ol' Greek food.

Afterwards, the ladies decided to join me at Two Rows' for dollar beer night in honor of Oliver's birthday. Good times were had.

11/9

Keeping the birthday theme of tapas, but changing the local from Mi Luna to Beso (which Citysearch doesn't seem to list). I had fond memories of being there with Lisa and some of her friends after I set up an internet connection for one of them, but this time I found the food had slipped towards mediocrity and the prices high.

Afterwaards, Kristin's search for novelty took us to martini specialists the Davenport. I had a very girly martini which drank like dessert, and then... hmm... round two escapes me. It was definitely something less girly. Maybe another martini, maybe a beer. I liked the Davenport, but I think it belongs in later stage of my life when I can sit around for an evening and sip $10 martinis.

11/10

Absolutely nothing happened.

11/11

The second birthday celebration of the week belonged to Jeff. We met at one of his and Jim's favorites, Mo Mong. Will and I were the only straight ones there (Cindy had another dinner to go to), and I felt... a bit out of place, but the meal was enjoyable enough. There was a free shot from a liquor rep (the fact that I can't remember which one might suggest that they're not the most effective advertisers). There was also some sort of asian beer with a tiger on the bottle. Appetizers were ordered, including wasabi crab cakes, which were good despite my general dislike of wasabi, probably due to restraint on the part of the chef. I settled on some sort of curried chicken dish for my meal, which turned out to be good, fairly light.

Afterwards, Will and I went for drinks with Jeff's crew to some gay club or another. Then we split. I met up with the usual Dan crew and Cindy at the Mink.

11/12

Ah, the graduate school picnic. A keg to polish off, barbecue to eat, parking places to find. After driving around for nigh half an hour, a very nice mother in the car ahead of me let me take a parking space that had just opened up.

So after a quick trek through the park, it was barbecue time. Barbecue this year was provided by Pappa's Bros., and was a step up from "http://houston.citysearch.com/profile/9953169/houston_tx/demeris_barbecue.html"
>Demeris, which we've had in years past, and always seems rather... marginal.

There seems to be a common phenomenon that the homeless people hover, 30 yards away or so, waiting for our leftovers. Which is great. We always have way too much food, and they sure need it more than we do. But when they start asking for beer, it's a bit of a grey area. Thankfully one that David handled, unilaterally deciding that it was probably... a bad idea.

We only had one keg this year, down from two, but it was plenty, and I told David W. that I was committed to helping polish it off. In fact, as the afternoon wore on and the beer didn't, really, a call went out. A call for a keg stand.

And then somebody volunteered me. Keep in mind that, having been to Baylor, and probably having been underexposed to keg culture in general, I'd never done one. So I did. And it was good.

Cindy was next. We got the ball rolling and then decided to make our exit, leaving the remainder of the crowd, inspired to do great things, to finish off the keg.

After that I started out for my aunt and uncle's, realizing soon afterwards that I was almost certainly a bit drunk. So I set course for home, collapsed on the sofa for a while, and then Cindy came over later and we hung out.

11/13

It turns out that decision was for the better, as when I went to Susan and Jerry's on Sunday afternoon, who was in town for a visit but Cousin Jer? So it was good to see him. He wanted to go to dinner at "the boat" which is apparently a wonderfully trashy place to get fried seafood, but that didn't work out so we ended up at something else that sort of looked like a boat, but ended up being a seafood/asian place. Not exactly what he had in mind, but we made it work.

The Prole; Real Halloween; Best. Concert. Ever.; Bowling for Shawn

In real time, it's the end of another weekend. The new Arcade Fire album leaked and I was ecstatic. I've listened to it probably close to 10 times already. I put this entry off for a while just because I wanted to do justice to the Ben Folds show...

Maybe I should start doing these introductions like a syndicated TV show. I could be like Leonard Nemoy on "In Search Of" or the Cryptkeeper on "Tales From The Crypt"...

10/30

Another Monday night at the Prole...

10/31

Cindy had decided that she would go as Yoko Ono for her Halloween costume, and I thought that it'd be nifty if I went as John Lennon. So I had about an hour to spare before Dan and Kristin's Halloween party and I decided to go looking, knowing that I had a couple of backup costumes that could work.

But fuck if I could find Lennon glasses. I found a great hat; I could get Cindy to straighten my hair, it would have totally worked. Except for the glasses. Giving that up and moving back to the Royal Tenenbaums idea, I picked up a few things I had previously borrowed, but in the end there wasn't enough time to perform the requisite hair alterations, and I ended up recycling my two-year-old "The Dude" costume, which was quick, easy, and comfortable (but what that involves wearing a bath robe isn't comfortable, I ask you?).

So Cindy showed up as a very respectable Yoko, and we went on to Dan and Kristin's party, where there was plenty of food, beer, and good company. Later in the evening we rounded up the remaining party-goers and headed up to Rudz to see...

Danny & the Nightmare, featuring Daniel Johnston. It was funny to have that opportunity so soon after watching the movie. Seeing him in person, I honestly was left no more certain of the man's mental state and artistic merit than after seeing the movie, but it was still quite an interesting experience. He didn't really play any of the songs I wanted to hear, though. He did, however, put on a good show (which is more than he sometimes does, according to Cindy), and seemed to enjoy himself.

We didn't stick around too long afterwards, it being a school night and all.

11/1

Those of you who know me probably know my passion for the music of Ben Folds. Those of you who know me well probably know that Ben Folds Five is, primarily, responsible for my love of modern indie rock, and second only to the Beatles in shaping my love of music in general. I love that man and his smart ass, sentimental, acutely perceptive music.

It was with detached curiousity that I observed, a while back, that he played some shows with orchestras, particularly in Australia. He even released a DVD of one, which I had pathetically managed to not pick up in the almost year that it had been out (though not for complete lack of tryihjng). In the back of my head, though, I knew that Ben Folds+Orchestra=Awesomeness. But knowing I had no chance of being in Australia to witness such a thing first hand, I maintained that detached curiousity.

But then in August, I happened to notice that Ben had booked a date in Houston. In Jones Hall. Where the Houston Symphony performs. And that the Houston Symphony was selling the tickets.

Holy shit. Ben Folds was coming to play with the Houston Symphony.

Before I even got my shit together, Cindy had already gotten us (well, me, technically, but of course I was going to take her) a pair of tickets for my birthday.

So after waiting for three months, the day had arrived. We got all gussied up and headed downtown, parked underground, and joined an odd crowd of hipsters, high schoolers, and confused-looking middle-aged patrons of the arts that were streaming into Jones Hall. We took our seats and waited for the awesomeness. I'll just go through the set list (recorded thanks to Ben_Folds_Fan on the benfolds.org forums; also for interesting reading, check out this old fogey's snobbish thoughts).

1. "Zak & Sara": Ben enters to a dramatic orchestral swell, which fades into his rapid arpeggios that begin "Zak & Sara".
2. "Smoke": Beautiful with lots of sweet strings.
3. "All U Can Eat": Ben introduces this one by pulling a mock political speech out of his pockets and reads it. The presence of the orchestra isn't really notable here...
4. "Jesusland": Just like the album, but it's already got a great arrangement, so why fuck with success? Lonely, forlorn, and beautiful.
5. "Lullabye": Great arrangement. The original was jazzy and had strings anyway (I think); this one adds a nice soft saxophone solo.
6. "Landed": The single mix of this one had strings, and I always thought it went well with this big, sappy, optimistic song. Nothing that new here, but great live.
7. "Philosophy": Sounded great and included the traditional solo with "Rhapsody in Blue" and "Miserlou", followed by a plug for the symphony, claiming that he made easy music look hard while they made hard music look easy.
8. "Stephen's Last Night in Town": The drums did a nice job of doing the swing beat; the clarinet pulled off the solo well.
9. "Cigarette": Ben introduces this as being a single run-on sentence he took from a newspaper article, and, after his solo performance, sings the finale: "Period."
10. "Fred Jones Pt. 2": Nice, but maybe by the numbers? Except that John McCrea's harmony part was covered solo by... an instrument. Of some sort. I forget, but it was nice.
11. "Not the Same": Ben directed the audience in the harmonies, as usual. The conductor lent him a baton. The orchestra seemed amused. It was purty with the strings.
12. "The Ascent of Stan": Never really liked this song. Again, the orchestra was nice, but didn't revolutionize the song the way it did for some songs.
13. "Gracie": Tells the story about how he wrote one song about each of his kid, and how they wre born on different days and have different astrological signs.
14. "Brick": He may have given the standard introduction to this one... can't remember. This arrangement, however, was excellent. Lots of chords that aren't what you expect. Really fun.
15. "One Angry Dwarf": Reimagined as a disco album. Great arrangement.
16. "Narcolepsy": This is a song that was meant to be heard with orchestar. Big, huge, sweeping, exciting strings. And he brought out an operatic baritone to sing the backing vocals. Kick ass.
17. "The Luckiest": The encore. Nice live performance. Nothing groundbreaking, but a nice note to end on.

I'm pretty sure Jones Hall had never heard the fuck word so many times. Ben was absolutely glowing. Grinning from ear to ear. He was a kid on Christmas morning with a brand new toy. He was charming and funny and had the crowd, and some of the less stuck up members of the orchestra, eating out of his hand. This was one night when the man had to know that he had arrived.

The crowd was generally pretty good; we were pretty much all grinning from ear to ear. One douchebag called out for "Rock This Bitch". Seriously, dude? You don't yell requests at an orchestra. And "Rock This Bitch" at a Ben Folds concert is pretty much like yelling "Freebird" at any other concert. You're not funny. You're not cool. Go do something useful with your time.

Another girl, after the show was over complained that Ben didn't play "Tiny Dancer". Here's some news: it's not his song. Plus, you just had a once in a lifetime experience. Try being a little grateful, you whiny bitch.

Oh, and when I pay (or theoretically pay) a whole lot of money for concert tickets, I don't want to see some jackass usher crawl across the entire damned front row to stop someone from taking pictures. I understand that flash photography was prohibited. I understand it's distracting. But it's not half as distracting as seeing some snob on a power trip trip over people's feet five feet away from the man I paid all that money to see. If I had those front row seats, I would have been fucking furious. I would have punched that man in the balls. Hitler? No. That man? Yes. He fucking had it coming.

Those instances aside, it was wonderful seeing a show where the music could be taken seriously, where people were quiet and respectful and appreciated the music.

And the sound. Oh sweet Jesus, the sound. It took about a minute for the sound guy to get the balance right between Ben's vocals (amplified), piano (amplified), and orchestra (au naturale). Once he got it, though, wow. I've listened to some many shows over crappy PAs, which is almost always bad. The best you can hope for is inoffensive. But to hear the orchestra backing Ben in an acoustically excellent space, unamplified. The bass was perfect. The bass is never perfect at a normal concert. It's boomy, it's one-note, it's muddy. It caught me off guard.

As I said when I was admonishing the ungrateful chick, this was an incredible opportunity. I can't remember any concert I've enjoyed more, and I don't think anything will ever top this. Wow.

11/2

Sabrina arranged a get-together in celebration of Shawn's birthday, and while Cindy and my working schedules precluded making it to the dinner at Chuy's, we caught up with the group at the bowling alley to bowl a few frames and drink a few beers. We closed the place down before calliing it a night.

Also, Cindy lent a friend of a friend of Sabrina's a stethoscope for some kind of residency interview. Aren't those things like #2 pencils? Don't they have a big box of them, freshly sharpened, sitting by the door?

Bryan and Halloween Weekend

Well, here in real-time land, it's MLK day, and I've been a little under the weather. Jury's still out on whether I'm really sick or just have a confluence of various crappy feelings, but I'm feeling better. On to the blogging...

10/23-25

I'm sure stuff happened on these days, but I really can't remember. It was right before my credit card rolled over to the next month, so I could have been conserving funds...

10/26

Will IMs me and asks if I want to go on a comic store run, which of course I do. Afterwards we try out Prince's, a diner-style burger joint. Certainly they nailed the diner part, and Will's malt was impressive, but their burgers didn't knock me over.

Afterwards, home for a while before it's time to pick up Bryan from the airport. He was coming into town just in time to catch Voxtrot over at Walter's, but... he didn't. There are weather delays, and, tragically, we miss the band. Instead, I took Bryan to Tapatia for some dinner (and a michelada for me), where Cindy met us post-show before we head on to the Prole to hang out for a while.

10/27

It's a good Friday afternoon for skipping out of school a little early, so Bryan picks me up and, after a quick Wendy's run for his lunch, we meet up with Phil at the Ginger Man in the village and knock back a few, including trying some of the pumpkin brews they have on hand. Next we proceed to Hans', where we have some more and enjoy sitting outside despite the (as the Arcade Fire would put it) cold wind blowin'.

Cindy meets us at Hans' before we head to Star to meet Brina and Shawn for dinner. In addition to the now traditional salsa verde pizza, Cindy talks us into the Joe's (spinach and garlic), half with bacon (and half without to maek sure Sabrina doesn't get trychonosis). The bacon adds a nice smokiness to the spinach and garlic, pleasing many of us. Pitchers of Shiner are also consumed.

After that, Phil, Bryan, Cindy and I continue on to the Warehouse to catch Broken Social Scene. Do Make Say Think opens and sound... very Broken Social Scene-ish. As for the main act, well... they're never going to top that kick ass show that we saw at the Proletariat, with a ton of audience members crammed into the tiny room, and a ton of band members crammed onto a tiny stage, and Stars opening. The show was OK, but chalk another mediocre set up to the Warehouse's deplorable sound.

Phil's got to be up early to catch some soccer the next morning, so we call it a night after that.

10/28

After an aborted attempt at going to Reggae Hut (closed on weekends, tragically), we are joined by some of Sabrina's law school crew and fall back on the old standby of Niko Niko's, where I try their meatballs wih feta (excellent!).

Next we retire to my place to watch the Royal Tenenbaums and get into character for our Halloween costumes. We gather up a few items from my place, make stop-offs at Target and Walmart, and then go to Sabrina's house.

Part of the plan involved Sabrina flattening my hair, which she did, and I looked like a fucking rock star. We go to meet Lisa and friend at Teala's for a good but pricey Mexican dinner (I should note that we had previously eaten there before the last Broken Social Scene show). I have something that involves a chicken breast, a whole lot of melted cheese, and some peppers, which is certainly tasty.

We returned to Sabrina's, finish readying ourselves, and embark for Viraj's final (?) halloween party. I begin to work on getting thoroughly trashed. The party was good, with plenty of good costumes (my favorite was the girl that came as spinach infested with E. Coli). We ultimately lose best group costume to the unimaginative and poorly executed Fanta girls, and baby Jesus cries. Oliver's date is dressed in a suspiciously similar fashion to his date the previous year, making us wonder just who is coming up with the costumes. Much beer is consumed. I flit around like the social butterfly I am.

Once things start to wind down we head north, past downtown in search of a difficult-to-find wearhouse that has been rented out by the U of H student bar association, where more things are drunk, lots of people get our costumes (which is awesome), and a generally good time is had by all.

10/29

I do laundry either at the apartment or at Susan and Jerry's; Cindy comes over; we watch TV.

The Proletariat; La Tapatia; GRAB; Angela's party, Poison Girl, and Late Nite Pie; Rudyard's, Whataburger, and Woodrow's

I'm in lab, late on a Sunday night, doing some work for my committee meeting on Tuesday, and taking advantage of the wait time to get some blogging in.

8/21

Another Monday at the Proletariat.

8/23

Having overspent, I was waiting out the clock until the new credit card billing cycle started. Consequently, there was not much going out this week. However, Cindy called me up Wednesday and asked if I wanted dinner. I agreed on the condition that it was cheap.

The always reliable La Tapatia certainly qualified, so we had some good Mexican food.

8/25

The credit card bill having rolled over, I was free to go out with reckless abandon. Dan was DJing at the GRAB once again. Beer, pool, good music, maybe even... dancing? Nah, couldn't have been. Or...

8/26

Angela, a lab tech, had recently begun hanging out with the crew from school, so we joined her for her birthday party. It was a wine and cheese affair, hosted at a swank downtown loft. After the always-pleasant experience of parking downtown, Cindy and I rolled into the lobby, ignored requests to sign in, and headed up to the party.

It was mostly people I didn't know, but... it turns out that our host was Amir, the guy whose name I couldn't remember from Graham's bachelor party. Somehow I had missed that he and Kevin were friends of Angela's (or maybe second degree). So I caught up with them a bit, enjoyed the swank surroundings, drank some good wine, was a little disappointed by the cheese selection, and enjoyed the (perhaps unsanitary) chocolate fountain.

The party was moving to Slainte; I'm not exactly a fan, so Cindy and I instead opted to catch up with Dan and Kristin at Poison Girl, before going with them to Late Nite Pie for a quality late dinner.

8/27

Dan & crew were at Rudyard's Sunday night, so I dropped by and joined the for a round or two of extra-cheap Lonestar. I ducked out and made a Whataburger run, catching up with Will at Woodrow's to eat my late dinner, play some darts, and drink some more beer.

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.