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.

Checking out the iPhone; Farewell to David; Dallas

7/9

Made my first trip to check out the iPhone at the Apple Store, and it was everything I'd dreamed it would be. What with the California trip having been all but picked up by my funding agency, and the resulting air travel voucher, I was in a pretty good place financially. So I started thinking about the logistics of getting out of my T-mobile contract, selling my Blackberry, and acquiring an iPhone.

After getting back, Cindy & I made our airplane ticket purchases and watched some Sopranos.

7/10

Band practice, followed by picking up some Whataburger on the way home. Yum.

7/11

Sometimes-collaborator, frequent annoyance David from the lab decided to plan his going away party while the boss was out of the country, since he's kind of a dick like that. That had the side effect that, sadly, the event was not on the lab's dime. Anyway, we hit Gingerman after work for some beer, then Nit Noi for some Thai. Somehow, I was the group's expert for Thai food and so did the ordering.

Afterwards, Cindy & I scooped Will up from Baker Street to catch the new Harry Potter, which I recall being nice enough.

7/12

Grocery shopping and then the Sopranos. Super exciting evening.

7/13

I took the day off and headed up to Dallas for my annual visit to see Bryan. I got in, checked out their awesome house in the Lower Greenville neighborhood, played some Wii Tennis, and then Phil met up with us and we walked up to Blue... Mesa? (help me out, Bryan) for Tex-Mex and margs. Then, more walking (I do like being able to walk places—no worries about having to drive home and such) up to the Granada theater to catch a solid set by Centro-Matic. I'm sure we grabbed some more drinks somewhere else afterwards (or maybe not) before we headed back to Bryan's place.

7/14

Bryan and I started the day with some Wii Tennis before grabbing lunch at a Mediterranean place (again, Bryan, remind me). Bryan had wanted to show me Penzey's Spices, which was pretty sweet, and then we headed back to his place.

What came next was a revelation. Bryan had gotten some beers from Thom: the magical lambic variety known as gueuze. I was familiar with the fruit-flavored lambics, but not this wonderfully sour beer. Bryan had four bottles that we worked our way through. The first was Lindemann's Gueuze, which I think is kind of a dumbed down version of the style, with some extra sweetness to cover the sour flavors. Next we tried their Cuvée Rene, which is a pretty faithful representation, and I loved it. In addition to the sourness there was a nice dark roasted nut flavor behind it. There were two more which I found pretty similar to the Cuvée Rene (Bryan, more help...). The Cuvée is the only one (well, and the Gueuze) I can get in Texas, and I've since taken to stocking a few bottles.

In a very lucky coincidence, Nick and Alison happened to be rolling through town that same evening. Nick caught up with us during our beer tasting and joined in... and brandished his new iPhone. I was, of course, jealous. We went out for a great Indian dinner (Bryan...) and Alison very patiently put up with us catching up, before they had to be on their way.

7/15

We grabbed some lunch (the details escape me... Bryan?) before doing some shopping at Good Records and then I headed back to Houston. My notes specify that I went to Buffalo Wild Wings that night... presumably with Cindy.

Bryan's visit

6/29

Something I've learned: when you don't have actual vacation days, you have no reason not to a) stretch the days you're going to be gone on either end and b) just be generally vague. So it was that I had a day off in time for Bryan to come into town.

He, Sabrina and I hit up Reggae hut for lunch (I think there were some bad "Jamaican" puns made, and jokes about a nearby funeral home). Food was great, as always. After that, we went and saw Evan Almighty, although I don't know why, because it was pretty bad.

The entire day, I was resisting the impulse to jump in line for an iPhone. Instead, we headed back to my place for some Wii.

We met up with our respective better halves for some Star pizza that evening, and then hit the Davenport for some fancy martinis. We capped the night with a traditional night swim at Sabrina's apartment complex. With alcohol.

6/30

Bryan and I hung around my place and played some Wii before hitting Central Market for dinner ingredients. We got an artichoke, and made Bryan's famous tomatillo chicken tacos.

After that, show at the Proletariat: Voxtrot. It was filled to capacity when we showed up, but in half an hour, enough of the jaded hipsters got bored that we were able to get in. The band kind of got screwed; didn't go on until after 1:00 and played only a short set. Good show regardless.

7/1

Bryan and I decided to catch Ratatouille Sunday afternoon (great flick), before having Indian food for dinner at Khyber. I always enjoy Khyber when I go; it's a little pricey but it was a good meal.

California pt. 3

So yeah, almost a year behind. Traveling to Europe, moving, gardening, going to school, and maintaining my social life really kills my free time. But if I'm going to dig myself out of this hole, it's time to start writing.

In the mean time, I hope you've been enjoying the tweets. I'm still figuring out what/how to write them, but it's a nice, convenient outlet for stuff that could be significantly longer on the blog, or get put off and never get written.

Back to the California trip. When we left, Cindy and I had just had a great mini vacation in Pacific Grove and then drove to Palo Alto for my conference at Stanford.

6/26

Conference; Straits; Nap; Picnic; Sundance
Conference at Stanford started early, and we were asked to be there on time because apparently they introduced the attendees program by program, and it had looked bad in previous years when most of us, you know, hadn't bothered to show up. I got up and got ready, but the shuttle bus was full.

Cindy to the rescue! She was wonderful enough to drive a few of us that had missed the bus over to Stanford, where I proceeded to sit through a couple boring talks before sneaking out after the first session.

So we organized a lunch with Jessie, his fiancé, and one of her friends. We ate at... well... it was sort of Asian-Pacific. I'm trying to remember the exact cuisine... maybe Singaporean? Well, whatever, it was good. Big lunch, since we were on the company dime.

After that I put in an appearance at the poser session, and then I think we managed to squeeze in a nap before heading to the conference picnic in Stanford's sculpture garden.

We skipped the mediocre catered food and instead headed for Palo Alto's nicest steak house, Sundance. According to the receipt I submitted, I had a salad, two appetizers, the surf and turf, and dessert. And Cindy had a bottle of wine. Reality was, we each shared our orders.

It was actually my first experience eating lobster tail, and, honestly, I wasn't all that impressed. I don't see the appeal, especially at the price. Although just about anything that you dip in melted butter isn't going to be bad...

It was pretty late by the time we were done with dinner, and we called it an evening.

6/27

My neck problem made itself known that morning, so I skipped the rest of the conference, and then we packed up the Pontiac and headed to the airport. We stopped off at In 'N' Out for one last burger (wow are the employees ever friendly), and I figured out that stopping by Apple corporate headquarters was only a minor detour.

It was easy to find; just off the highway. We got there right around lunch time and saw a bunch of people walking around, many of whom looked very happy. I have to say I was a bit jealous and certainly let my mind wander to the possibility of working there.

The only building open to the public is the corporate store, where they have logoed merchandise that's not sold anywhere else. I grabbed a spiffy looking water bottle and an ID badge clip.

From there we headed on to the airport. Cindy had forgotten to pack the hot sauce we had swiped from Nepenthe in her checked luggage, so we had to grudgingly ditch it at security. I still need to call and find out what brand it was and order some via the magic of the internets.

We were waiting for our flight, when they announced that it was overbooked and started offering vouchers in exchange for taking a flight the next day. When the value hit $200 we went for it. An extra day in Cali, free, and $250 each? Yes.

We had already ditched the rental car, so our options for the day were limited. They put us up in a hotel, and I called Grambo to see if I could tag along with them for the evening. Cindy called her brother up and he came down to spend the evening with her.

Graham was kind enough to pick me up from the hotel, and we joined some of his Silicon Valley friends (including some Googlers) at a nice wine bar in Palo Alto. It was in an old house and had a great back yard area. I enjoyed siting in on the gathering, thinking about what life could be like working for a tech company instead of doing science research. One of them generously picked up the check.

We went around the corner to a place that served gourmet hot chocolate (e.g. you could spend $10 on a cup with herbs or spices added in). I had a cappuccino.

6/28

Cindy and I caught the shuttle to the Airport, grabbed some breakfast using our meal vouchers (which, sadly, could not be applied to alcohol), and then caught our plane back.

California pt. 2

OK, this one has been in the works for a while. Consider it a token of my intent to keep the blog going...

6/23

The flight was too damned early. The less said, the better.

But it allowed us to arrive in San Jose pretty close to noon. The first step outside, feeling that cool California air again, and I was a happy man.

Picked up the rental car; despite reserving a compact we got a Pontiac G6—reminded me a lot of my Dad's old Lumina. Certainly a fairly bland domestic car, but at least it wasn't something cramped and underpowered. I'd take it over a PT Cruiser or Aveo or, hell, a Corolla, at least for a rental.

Keys in hand, we were off and putting the car to work. Cindy's brother was living to the north, in Concord, so we took off in that direction. It was a relatively quick drive from there, maybe 45 minutes or so, before we arrived at his apartment. Apartment was nice—overlooked a pond, lots of ponds all over the complex. We grabbed lunch at a Hawaiian BBQ restaurant, which had some great grilled meat reminiscent of Korean BBQ. And a macaroni salad that was a bit mayonnaise-y for my tastes. But the meal was enjoyable.

After that the plan was to head up to Sonoma and hit a vineyard, but by the time we dealt with some traffic and got there they were closing. Still, it was fun to ride around and see the grapes growing, and then we grabbed some coffee (the early morning was starting to catch up with me) and turned around.

Cindy and I bid Steve adieu and started heading back the way we came, through San Jose, continuing South through some mountains, to the sand dunes, and then, suddenly, ocean! We hit Monterrey and I remembered the local geography well enough (how many times had I been there before? 8 or so?) to take Cindy in through the scenic route: through the marina, then "historic" Cannery Row, then past all the beautiful oceanside homes of Pacific Grove, finally arriving at the good ol' Andril Cottages. Kevin, the owner, wasn't there, but some friends of his were tending shop, so we got checked in to one of their few hotel-style rooms (no kitchen or separate living area, primarily) and headed out again just in time to catch the sunset.

Cindy had her camera out and was trying to figure out the timer, and I had to remind her to watch the sunset; after that we got the timer set and got some good pictures (check out the picture book if you haven't already). Then, it was dinner time. We got some recommendations and picked up some menus from the office, but nothing really fit, so we just went for a drive, and settled on pizza. We ended up at Round Table pizza, grabbed a pitcher of some local, inoffensive beer, and got a pizza. After that we swung by the store and grabbed a six pack (selection was again lacking; I think we got Guinness), enjoyed a couple of bottles in the Cottages' courtyard, and then called it a night.

But not before noticing that the new Okkervil River album had leaked and setting it to download overnight via a weak wireless signal...

6/24

Woke up the next morning, had leftover pizza for breakfast, and then made a Radioshack run to get a charger for Cindy's un-charged camera (again, I was proud of my navigational skillz). Then we hopped on Highway One south to enjoy a drive through some of the most beautiful scenery in the world (at least, to my understanding).

It's hard to overstate exactly how beautiful the drive is. Dramatic cliffs, hillsides painted in greens, yellows, and reds, an ocean that is the most beautiful shade of blue, and a twisty two-lane road running through it, just waiting to be carved up. The new Okkervil River provided perfect driving music, and everything was bliss. We made a few stops for pictures and then continued down south, into the redwoods, and stopped at Nepenthe for brunch.

Nepenthe is another surprise—just when you think you're started making your way away from the ocean, you climb the stairs from the bookstore/gift shop up to the café on the second level, and there's yet another dramatic view of the ocean.

We ordered some coffee and brunch; I selected what was essentially bacon, eggs, and potatoes, but was sold better than that in the menu, and Cindy opted for french toast spread with a blueberry cream cheese, but we shared. We made friends with the ladies at the table over from us as part of a sneaky move to get them to take a picture of us. We stayed a while, taking in the view, went up stairs to check out the restaurant, browsed the bookstore a while, and then took a short drive up north.

Our destination was Andrew Molera State Park. The Wards had gone there once, back in the day. We paid the entry fee, grabbed Cindy's camera, and got started. A very clear stream winds its way through the park. We crossed once at the beginning of the trail, and then worked our way through some trees, a field, and more trees, about a mile or so, before reaching a secluded beach. We worked our way down the beach for a while, working our way between the rocks and the ocean. The way back was a bit of a fiasco; we were walking into the wind and the sand in our faces was more than a little unpleasant, so we took off our shoes and waded until we got by some of the bigger rocks that were causing the wind to build.

Once we got our feet washed off and our shoes back on, we checked out a bit of one of the cliffside trails before heading back, stopping to watch some deer on the way.

The scenery was beautiful, the weather was crisp, cool, and sunny, and the entire experience was a few hours or so. That's my kind of nature experience.

Eventually we headed back up the highway to Pacific Grove. Kevin invited us to go to dinner with his family, so we walked over to his house next door to the cottages, and then rode with him in his BMW 7-series over to an eclectic diner.

Once we got back, we caught another sunset, and then decided to head downtown and see if we could find any nightlife, and, well, not so much. We walked around Cannery Row. I think we spotted a cigar shop but weren't really in the mood; the only other bar looked thoroughly crowded, commercial, and generic. We probably could have gone down the list of other bars in the phonebook, but we elected to hang out at the cabin for the evening instead.

6/25

In downtown Monterey, another Ward tradition—particularly for Father's Day—was breakfast at the Old Monterrey Café. After that we checked out a camera store to get Cindy's lens cleaned after the windy time at the beach.

Our next destination was the 17 Mile Drive. It goes along several nice ocean views, featuring lots of wildlife, the copyrighted Lone Cypress, the Pebble Beach lodge, etc. I managed to get us a bit lost after leaving Pebble Beach, but we eventually found our way to Carmel, where I drove Cindy around to check out all the unique beach-front houses. Another frequent stop on previous vacations was the beautifully landscaped Barnyard shopping center, overflowing with flowers. Dad had wanted us to pick something up from the aptly-named Succulent Gardens.

While checking out what used to be the Thunderbird bookstore, we noticed that the Mexican restaurant now inhabiting it had a happy hour special on margaritas, which sounded good, so we grabbed a round, and the deal kept getting better: free appetizers!

After that, we headed back through Pacific Grove one last time, stopping downtown at the Ghirardelli chocolate stop there for an ice cream Sunday before heading back north to Palo Alto to check into the hotel there for the conference.

After negotiating the streets of Palo Alto and their disgustingly slow speed limits, we checked in. The hotel was nothing great for what we were paying. There was an OK pool area and a koi pond which seemed a bit ill-maintained.

We decided to grab dinner at the closest In 'N Out, a chain I became acquainted with through its being name dropped in The Big Lebowski. We were greated by happy employees, and I got a double cheese burger prepared with my customary ketchup and pickles, and some fries; Cindy's order was similar.

The burger was a great fast food burger, with a nicely grilled bun being a highlight. I think Whataburger may be better, but you can definitely count me as an In 'N Out fan. The restaurant was located in Mountain View, and I discovered that the Googleplex was just across the highway, so we drove by to check it out before calling it a night—I had been told to be sure to be at the opening session of the conference the next morning so that our program didn't look bad when we were introduced, something that hadn't gone well in previous years when most people had still been in bed, or at Starbucks.

Tweets for Today

• 20:01 Tweets untwittered from yesterday: 1) yay for free pizza @ student talks. #
• 20:02 2) Yay for nice weather and cheap beer @ Valhalla. #
• 21:09 3) Tollhouse pie @ the Chocolate Bar is surprisingly disappointing. Not substantial enough. Should be more cookie and less pie. #
• 21:12 4) Drinks with Grambo and Angela at their place. First time in a year. Char & Alison there too. Always want to play Graham's speakers louder #
• 21:13 5) Dexter back at home. Bed. #
• 23:02 6) Leftover Indian + more Dexter. #
• 23:04 7) Shoe shopping at shoes.com Saturday sale, spent an hour, found good stuff, didn't have my size. FAIL. #
• 23:05 8) Symphony was good tonight. Violin concerto played on a Stradivarius & a nice organ piece. #
• 23:06 And... caught up. #

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Tweets for Today

• 12:09 Bah. Committee meeting day. At least it will all be over soon. #
• 17:13 Good feedback with CM, but need to further negotiate conditions for graduation with boss. Dreading that conversation. #
• 20:06 Dinner @ Mission Burrito. #
• 22:52 I totally called this after I started Twittering: tinyurl.com/6crsup (via TMN). #

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Tweets for Today

Daily Twitterings:

• 15:55 Look, leasing office, I know you're short-staffed in Saturdays, but *someone* should always be in the office. Poor. #
• 16:17 Twitter means always having someone to roll your eyes to. #
• 21:25 Had a kangaroo burger for dinner. #
• 22:08 Hanging out with Jeff & Jim. We're discussing lamp shades. These are, of course, my gay friends. #

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Tweets for Today

Daily Twitterings:

• 11:35 Vegan cooking is like trying to drive somewhere only making left turns: you can do it, but it's sort of silly. #
• 11:36 I was referred to last night as a beer expert. I'm honored but it's overstating things quite a bit. #
• 12:18 Papa John's thin crust is ~5x better than their regular crust. But regular *does* have garlic butter. #
• 12:37 "Acquired" very nice pilsner glass and wheat beer glass from bar last night. Brought them $300 of business so I don't feel guilty. #
• 15:14 Take that link and rickroll.it ! #
• 15:15 Sadly Nick and I have discovered that fuck.it is registered. #
• 15:44 Ah, crap. Thao & Xiu Xiu are playing tonight at the Orange Show, but I'm already commiteed to hosting a Battlestar Galactica viewing party. #
• 16:14 Thank God for webcasts. Too rainy to walk to Rice today. #
• 16:15 Stupid QuickTime player won't stay maximized on my second monitor. #
• 16:40 OK, too much math in this talk. #
• 17:30 Battlestar Galactica is back tonight! #
• 02:39 Playing around with Pwnage. Nothing exciting so far, except that I've proven to myself that I won't brick my iPhone. Living on the edge! #
• 04:00 iPhone does look awfully sexy displaying terminal text while booting. Wonder if there's a verbose booting option hidden somewhere? #

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Tweets for Today

Daily Twitterings:

• 15:10 Today... is... so... slow... #
• 15:42 Counting the minutes until free recruiting dinner at Pappasito's (78m). #
• 15:42 I'm gonna get me a margarita with Cazadores in it. #
• 16:41 w00t! Off to dinner. Yay margs! #

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The mysterious ways of tipping

Here's a fascinating article on subtle (or not) rascist tendencies in tipping.

Tipping is a curious practice. The logical side of me says the whole thing is silly; that people should just be paid appropriately.

The sycophantic part of me, however, likes the opportunity to curry favor. In some situations where I know the person who is providing me service, but it's not a business where tipping regularly occurs, it feels downright weird not to tip—like at the comic book store where I see the same people week in, week out. Or sometimes I'm tempted to say, "keep the change" in the weirdest places, even if I'm not familiar with the person who's helping me.

So strange...

Two Gallants; Niko Niko's; Resident Evil; Packing

6/18

After their previous, disastrous show", Two Gallants were kind and upstanding enough to make it up to the scenesters of Houston by playing a free make-up show.

It maybe wasn't as good as their last one (well, the part of it they were allowed to complete), and it was certainly less exciting, but hey, what a great thing to do for your fans.

6/19

Band practice...

6/20

For the first time in months, there was a new Wii game worth buying. Sure, it was a re-release of a previous-generation game, but I had missed playing Resident Evil 4 the first time around, and the new Wii controls, which included point and shoot aiming, made for a compelling buy. I managed to (barely) swing by Best Buy to pick it up (I have to say, they've certainly gotten extra business from me thanks to handy in-store pickups and 90-days no interest on my Best Buy credit card) before joining Dan and Cindy at Niko Niko's for a $1.75 gyro in celebration of their many years in business. The line was out the door, and the wait was long, but that's not all that unusual for Niko Niko's. And the gyro tastes sweeter when you barely pay anything for it.

I started Resident Evil that night and would be fairly addicted to it over the next few weeks. For my non-gamer readers, the RE games generally involve zombies in some form or fashion, this volume in particular was, unlike its cinematic counterparts, critically acclaimed.

Certainly, firing it up for the first half hour or so, on the big screen with the surround sound and the lights out, it scared the crap out of me. It takes place in a Spanish village, and, as you make your way into it you discover that the villagers are a) homicidal; b) possessed or otherwise zombie-like; and c) surprisingly resilient to being shot, and you are armed only with a pistol. After taking out the initial one and having a crowd of villagers drawn to you, death seems inevitable until church bells ring and, suddenly, the villagers file away.

As you gain firepower, things get easier. Thankfully. The pacing manages to keep you on edge for attacks that aren't constant but do feel as if they could occur at any moment. And there are some amazing set pieces. Like when you find yourself barricaded in an old house, surrounded by zombies, and they start coming in through the windows, through the doors. And you try to hold them off, but they keep coming. So you have to flee upstairs. You knock the ladders away from the windows, you throw grenades down the stairs, but ammo is running low. I must have played that part of the game 5 times or so before I managed to outlast the things.

Did I mention I seem to have a fear of zombies? Something to do with claustrophobia, I think. So the game manages to be particularly effective, but also therapeutic. Sadly, there are some points at which the game feels too easy, and the emphasis on gunplay takes away from the horror elements. But for every level with such issues, there's another one where ammo is limited, and fuck, how am I going to make it out of this?

I'll confess I never actually finished it. I seem to have formed a habit of making it 95% of the way through a game and then getting bored. When you get too close to the end, the need to find out what's around the next corner goes away, and with it the drive to play the same damned sequence 5 or 10 times. I certainly don't have the patience I had back in the old NES days.

But overall, Resident Evil 4 is a great piece of work, and well worth playing. Even if you loathe the undead.

6/21

I helped out with the grad school night for the college summer students, as per usual, and pilfered some food to repurpose for dinner. After some ugliness with somebody who parked in my parking space (which usually results in only a strongly-worded note; as much as I hate people parking in my space, I hate more a) tow truck drivers and b) having my car vandalized), there was dinner and Sopranos.

6/22

After staying a bit late at work to wrap up a few things before going out of town, Cindy and I got some Tapatia for dinner, I snuck in some Resident Evil, and I managed to pack ahead of our unnecessarily early flight the next morninng.

Cecil's; Steak & Sopranos; Happy hour & farewell

6/11

A good old-fashioned Monday night at Cecil's.

6/12

Cindy and I had, independently, concluded that we needed to experience "The Sopranos". So I joined up with Blockbuster's by-mail program (at the time, clearly a better deal than Netflix, though I'm considering a switch), and we prepared for a night in.

Cindy found some cheap steak, which we decided to dress up with a chimichurri sauce. Now good steak is its own reward, but sometimes you want steak for cheap, and in those cases it doesn't hurt to dress it up. And chimichurri seems to be good on just about anything that's been grilled, particularly beef. On the side, we put together a nice salad of corn, avocado, tomatoes, peppers, and cilantro. A nice, south of the border-style meal all around.

As for the Sopranos, well, we enjoyed it thoroughly and found it and its characters compelling. I question how well it held up over the course of the series, and as such I think that, taken as a complete work, it's not as good as some of the very best of television such as "Lost". But it's still some of the best TV around.

Actually, this whole TV-on-DVD experience has highlighted for me the way I watch television in the DVR age. The best shows are the ones that have the same sense of scale as movies, and I think to just refer to them as "television" just connotes too many images of yokels slack-jawed in front of the idiot box. I almost never watch live TV now; to sit down in front of something I don't care for when there are so many other rewarding things going on is just boring. I watch the shows that I want to see, and avoid other things. Sometimes I am guilty of having it on just to have it on, but even then it's something I was at least interested in enough to record.

So, perhaps calling the Sopranos "TV" is doing it a disservice. "Serialized cinema", perhaps?

6/13

From here on out, if I skip a day, Cindy and I probably just stayed in and knocked out a few episodes of the Sopranos.

6/14

At the genetics department retreat every year, a contest is held and monetary awards given out for skits and videos. The money is administered by the school, though, and must be used for something that is ostensibly "educational" in nature. Used to be you could at least get an iPod, but it's apparently getting harder to swing fun things.

Except, apparently, beer. One pair of winners decided to share the wealth and throw a departmental happy hour. And there was a lot of beer. And when 5:00 rolls around and you've already had a few, the sensible thing to do is to just call the day "over", which Cindy and I did.

So after that, we had a little "good-bye" party for the grad student in lab who always managed to get on my nerves. Beers were had at Gingerman and then dinner at Nit Noi. After that I think Cindy wanted to watch some sort of televised sporting event and I may have snuck a nap in after all the beer.

Work; Parking; Goofing off

OK, holidays are over, I'm returning to routine, so that should mean I can squirrel away some time for writing.

5/29

Work on the paper continued...

5/30

More work. I had to redo a figure for the Not My Paper because the primary author was too fucking stubborn to follow directions. Afterwards, Cindy and I went to have dinner with her friends Jim & Nikki, who would shortly be moving to Las Vegas.

5/31

Part of my ability to work harder over the past week had been due to the freedom afforded to me by Jeff's sweet, sweet, sweet parking pass. It was very hard for me to part with it, but I did return it to him. On the way home, to assuage my sad, sad soul, I picked up another round of Jimmy John's. Later, I ended up at the Volcano with... um... some people?

6/1-6/3

My notes for these days just say "goofing off", but specifics elude me. Honestly, I have no idea. I don't think I managed to take Friday off from school, but I might have claimed to have been "working on the paper at home". Remembering to 6 months ago is tough.

Chinese; Eggplant pasta; Car + No Boss; Rebecca; Louisiana; Cookout

Apparently I was on a kick. Here's another entry written in real time...

5/21

After a long, drawn-out bout of indecision, Cindy and I decided on Chinese take-out from the conveniently located Jimmy Wok. The garlic chicken was a little bland (though that seems to be the nature of the dish), but she also got a dish served over fried egg noodles which was nice and different.

Then, the Heroes season finale, which was a bit anticlimatic. They really let a lot of their big reveals happen too early, and with nothing all that suprising left, there just wasn't much to fill up the hour. Still, that can be overlooked in light of some great episodes in the first season. And the horrible second season makes it look even better in retrospect..

5/22

Jeff was going out of town for a little over a week and, in return for looking after his lizard and their fish, I got his parking pass to use while he was gone. Sweet.

5/23

I'd been wanting to try Alton Brown's clever take on eggplant parmesan, so we started by going to Fiesta, which is Cindy's grocery store of choice but which has never seemed sufficiently cheap and interesting to justify its... eccentricities (like the general dirtiness and bad smells).

But anyway, mission accomplished and all that, so we came back and made this dish, which was nice and clever and simple. Chop the eggplant into strips which, when cooked, will resemble pasta; sautée with oil and a little seasoning, add in some fresh tomatoes, some cream (fat free half and half works surprisingly well) to make a sauce, some fesh basil, some parmesan, and then garnish with bread crumbs. Quick, tasty, reasonably healthy.

Serve with the season finale of your choice; we went with Lost, which, despite loud and frequent complaining that nothing ever gets resolved, was both satisfying and intriguing. I'm looking forward to the next season, but that's a long way away.

5/24

No boss and a parking pass. The world was my oyster. I showed up when I wanted and left when I wanted. It was grand.

5/25

After I grabbed my car from the garage, I drove out west to meet the family and pick up Rebecca. I had yet to buy Becca a birthday present, so we stopped by Microcenter to get her an external hard drive for all her data storage needs (and a flash drive for Cindy's). On the way back we called Cindy, and after another prolonged period of indecisiveness, we settled on Mo Mong. We ordered some spring rolls as an appetizer that had feta and chicken that were decent; Cindy got some fried oysters that failed to imrpess me (but oysters in general are not my thing, except the metaphorical kind), and then we got some noodle soup, a stellar lemon grass beef (lemon grass does not get the respect and attention it deserves), a round of sake shots (a usefully low $2 each), a Tiger beer for me, and one of their signature lychee nut martinis for Cindy. It all added up to a very satisfying dinner with two of my favorite ladies.

On the way home we stopped off at the overcrowded Davenport for a round of martinis. Becca had a rasberry one, which was good but curdled; I had a "grasshopper" chocolate mint one, and Cindy had the classic "tilt a whirl" chocolate martini.

5/26

My Louisiana relatives are best handled in small doses. That somehow resulted in me not having seen them in 3 years. Mom and Dad had talked about going for Memorial day, so Becca and I tagged along. We drove through the wastelands of East Texas and on in to the wastelands of south Louisiana, through the cursed borough of Lake Charles, and on to Crowley. We stocked up on cajun groceries, saw the town, and then an impromptu Ward family reunion (some 15 or so of us) began.

We went to a cajun restaurant, dance hall. Becca and I got a ride with cousin-in-law Dawn, who, in Rebecca's words, was "cool as shit" (well, if she didn't say it, she probably thought it). We arrived there first and started in on the drinks. I discovered it's definitely easier to connect with the LA Wards with the power of alcohol. Sitting down for dinner I ordered an Abita Amber and was first asked by them if it was "root beer" then if it was some "imported shit" before finally convincing them that it was, in fact, made in Louisiana. They tasted it, and apparently the lack of Coors Lite blandness was a bit much.

Once everybody took off, Becca and I convinced our Aunt Mona and Uncle Charlie to take us to Coushatta to do some light gambling, and, surprisingly, Mom and Dad came along. $20, a couple of hours, and a couple of free drinks later, it was time to get the parents to bed, so we called it a night.

5/27

We went to lunch at the local café/gas station/truck stop the next day and I had some very good cajun BBQ before we got back on I10 to head back to Houston. If you're ever going that way, the Texas rest stop at the border is actually pretty cool; there's a nice boardwalk through the marsh, and it's very pretty. When Mom & Dad dropped us off back at my place, we ended up picking up some sandwiches from Jimmy John's and took them to Woodrow's to eat with some cheap draught beer.

5/28

I took Rebecca to Susan and Jerry's to meet Mom and Dad so they could get on the road after we had lunch. I headed over to Graham and Angela's for a Memorial Day cookout; there was food, beer (my first Shiner 98, which was good, but not Shiner 97 good), and a piñata left over from somebody's birthday. The candy inside was no longer edible, but we had a stick from hitting the piñata, so... candy baseball! Junior mints boxes are, apparently, quite fun to hit. So are Reese's peanut butter cups. And who knew I could actually hit? Certainly not me.

Rockets; Sabrina; Spider-man; Dinner and bars; Mexican martinis

4/30

Cindy had gotten games to one of the Rockets playoff games (against Denver, if memory serves). In the spirit of being adventurous and sharing in her interests I agreed to go, but once again I'm reminded that sporting events are just not my thing. Combine large groups of annoying people, bad parking, over-priced beer and food, and you don't get a very happy Ward.

I seem to recall going to the Proletariat afterwards, but for the life of me I can't remember why...

5/1

Jeff had started his new job at school, so we went for lunch for the first time in the year or so since he'd last been employed there.

5/3

Sabrina and I hadn't hung out in a while, so we hit up Chuy's. Afterwards, it was the release night for Spider-man 3, so a group of us went. The movie had some cool bits but was ultimately disappointing, on the level of X-Men 3. Actually, come to think of it, the entire trilogy and the X-Men trilogy were parallel, quality-wise. Decent opening chapter, spectacular sequel, then tanked the third time around. Wonder why?

5/4

A colleague of Cindy's was moving away so a big group went to dinner at Pico's in Bellaire. Their "authentic" cuisine was good, though it hasn't exactly blown me away. Afterwards we hit up Gingerman to meet up with another friend of Cindy's, and then went to Poison Girl.

5/5

My quest for the perfect margarita recipe has never really gotten off the ground. I've tried a few variations, and once again we came back to the recipe we had found online for Trudy's Mexican martini. It's never quite right, though. Never quite smooth enough...

5/6

Despite the fact that my committee meeting was behind us, the pressure was on to get two papers out, so I put some work in Sunday afternoon (though I can't remember the exact reason).

Grindhouse, Recruiting, Art takedown, More chili

4/9

Since the reviews came out, I had been quite intent on going to see Grindhouse, so at first opportunity Will, Cindy and I went on an Angelika Monday. Robert Rodriguez's half was entertaining, and had nice portions of violence. The "intermission" was thoroughly enjoyable and might have been best distributed amongst the start, middle, and end of the entire experience. As it was, I missed some of the wonderful faux grindhouse trailers to take a much-needed bathroom break.

The highlight was Tarantino's Death Proof, which, in my opinion, could have stood on its own as a film. Not a particularly big or ambitious one, but I think that directors should feel free to make "side project" albums the way, say, Beck handled Mutations and Sea Change, or the way some bands do nice, compact EPs. The movie itself was lots of fun, from the beaming celebration of the city of Austin in the first half to the fun of doing stupid and dangerous shit with cars and turning the tables in the second half. I probably have no reason to ever revisit Rodriguez's Planet Terror, but I can imagine buying the DVD just to be able to watch Death Proof and the faux trailers from time to time.

Afterwards, a quick round a little Woodrow's.

4/10

Band practice...

4/11

More recruiting, more free drinks. Probably another night at the Volcano?

4/12

More of the same, though details escape me.

4/14

Rebecca was in town to disassemble her installation. We did lunch at Mai's, which I think has gotten Becca on a bit of a kick. I took off to catch Levi at guitar center to get myself a keyboard case and to get Jeff a digital recording interface/Pro Tools combo. After that (which took forever), I stopped by the gallery and helped clean up some tape. Once I became a third wheel, I went home and played a bit of the newly-arrived Paper Mario for Wii. Later that night, we grabbed dinner and drinks at Rudz.

4/15

Becca, Ali and I hit La Mexicana for brunch, which was good as always. That afternoon I did some shopping and went round two for perfecting our chili recipe, with Cindy's help. We corrected some problems we found with the original recipe, ending up with more of pretty much everything except the meat. In particular this batch ended up hotter, and we significantly increased the amount of beer to give us more liquid to work with. It was a success.

Afterwards Cindy and I watched Stranger Than Fiction which was a surprisingly clever and enjoyable film. The ending was sentimental and by the numbers, maybe, but I am a sucker for happy endings.

Susie; Shoes; Symphony; Jana Hunter; Chili

3/26

Band practice came a night early due to plans on Tuesday night; this may have been our first time attempting to record.

3/27

So right before South By, Dan had found himself a new girl. She's out of the picture now. But back then it looked serious. She was from San Francisco and thought she was moving to Houston, but then (oh, a couple months ago), she decided she wasn't. But in between, things seemed to be going well.

Anyway, she was in town for a visit, and Dan wanted all his closest friends to meet her, so we met at traditional Sharber gathering point Mi Luna (thankfully on happy-hour-priced Tuesday) for dinner.

The Proletariat was hosting a meet & greet with David Arquette, promoting his new film, with the Black Math Experiment, who had written a song about him, performing. We showed up, but it was too crowded and not really all that interesting, so we left for Poison Girl instead.

3/28

Char had recently gotten some Chuck Taylors, and Cindy was looking for shoes too, so we went shoe shopping. I ended up buying a pair at Urban Outfitters before we dashed off to Goode Co. Burgers for dinner. I've covered it before, but I really dig that place...

3/29

I realized that my size 11 Chucks didn't fit. The boss was out of town, so I took that chance to return them to Urban since they didn't have a size smaller. That and some school stuff made me feel somewhat ineffectual, so I made a run to Target to kill a few birds with one stone (new plastic cups for water, a record crate, presumably something else as well). Then I got back, found out that my friend from the MM list that works at shoes.com had sent me a nice coupon code, so I ordered a pair of Chucks in size 10.

Turns out, they're a bit tight. I can wear them, but prefer to do so when alcohol is involved because I don't notice how uncomfortable they are. I guess I can suffer for fashion sometimes.

3/30

I had to give my yearly talk to the students in our program, which was, as usual, a lame situation. Thankfully, almost no one showed up.

Afterwards, Cindy and I went to the symphony. I honestly don't remember what they played. I seem to recall enjoying it, though, as I usually do.

3/31

Jana Hunter played a good set up at Rudz to promote her quite good new album. Cindy and I were in attendance...

4/1

An e-mail had gone out from my funding agency that the local health sciences trade group was having a chili cookoff. Since I'm rather proud of my cooking, I quickly got in touch with Char and then got us in charge of things.

The fact that the event included lots of free beer didn't hurt.

Anyway, the budget allowed for a couple of test batches, so Char and I started our first one, basing it on Alton Brown's recipe. We did the first batch pretty much by the numbers, browning stew meat (beef, pork, lamb) with peanut oil and salt, then deglazing with beer, adding salsa (although we did a mix of salsa and pico to get some freshness in there), crushed tortilla chips to thicken it, tomatmo paste, homemade chili powder, smoked paprika, canned chipotles, and fresh peppers. Since this was a test batch for our consumption only, we also included some corn and black beans, which is heresy for a contest (a rather silly attitude, I think), but quite nice in my opinion.

Anyway, it turned out well, and Char made some honey cornbread to go with it. We had a good start on the contest...

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.

Stuffed burgers; SxSW

3/14

Due to incompetence on somebody's part (City of Houston?), I had no water. But I was going to the store to buy dinner supplies anyway, so a couple gallons of water solved that problem.

Cindy and I had, for some time, been discussing our idea of stuffed burgers. To offset the massive amounts of grease, we started with a salad. For the burgers, we cooked up some mushrooms and bacon. I split two 1/3 lb. burgers in half, making two patties of each, and put the mushrooms and bacon on top of two of them, along with some bleu cheese. Then put the unused patties on top and seal the seams.

In retrospect, I didn't get the seams quite right, because they opened up a bit during the grilling. Despite some scary moments in flipping them, I managed to keep the topping from spilling out. We put them on some nice hefty whole wheat buns, and I garnished mine with some steak sauce.

We consumed them in front of an episode of Lost. Suffice it to say they kicked ass.

3/15

Despite an unhappy boss, I took off Friday so that Cindy and I could head to Austin to catch some of South by Southwest. So that night there was some packing, and, since I was in the throes of an addiction to the season one DVDs of 24, I stayed up a bit late watching that.

3/16

We got a bit of a late start the next morning, much to Cindy's displeasure. We arrived in town and made straight for Waterloo Records to catch an instore by Peter Bjorn and John. We were initially quite concerned about the line, but it turned out that much of it was for a later act that Waterloo wasn't forming a line for, so we were soon toward the front. The show started and we were still outside while they were doing one in, one out, but we made it in and caught over half their set. Not bad for free. They were pretty straightforward live, but enjoyable.


After that we dropped my car off at Becca's and caught the bus to her place of employment. From there we went the the ACL studios, from which place KEXP was broadcasting for the week. When we arrived they were interviewing the Good, the Bad, and the Queen, and Beirut was setting up, which was the main attraction for us. We were there maybe half an hour early and there was hardly anyone there, possibly due to the (short) distance from downtown.

Beirut were great live, and once again, free. I think they definitely benefited from the live presentation, though I still find that their music is... well, not soulless, but not exactly meaningful. Maybe if I could understand the words...

Dinner was next on the agenda, and Becca suggested the new Salvation Pizza. The pie was excellent; very well seasoned. I need to eat there again so I can try to replicate it.

After that, back to Becca's to let our stomaches settle. Then we went to the nearby Ms. Bea's to attend what we thought was a free Architecture in Helsinki show listed on the 'net, but it didn't materialize, instead filled with bands I'd never heard of. We stuck around for a couple rounds of beer, before heading back to Becca's for the evening.

3/17

After some leftover Salvation at Becca's and a run by the liquor store for some purse-sized whiskey, we headed downtown to try and get into the filter party. Unfortunately Dan didn't show, and we were left without a way to get in. Toni showed up and figured she could get one of us in, and since it was the Pipettes performing, the girls graciously let me go in while they went in search of refreshment. The Pipettes were fun live, as the visuals definitely accentuate the girl-group revival sound. The weren't anything unexpected, but a competent reading of their material was all that was really required, and I certainly enjoyed it.

Becca had noticed that McCormick & Schmidt had a special on appetizers for St. Patrick's day, so we went, had a few cheap beers, and a lot of cheap appetizers, including corned beef sliders, chips and salsa, a burger, fish and chips, and some other stuff that I forget.

We wandered around in a slightly drunken haze for a bit, and happened to be walking by Club DeVille when we overheard the door guy say "Yes, the Polyphonic Spree is playing here." I didn't take any further convincing, so we hooked an immediate left turn into the club, got some drinks, and got in position for the show.

Having not seen them in four or so years, they were once again a revelation. Their new militaristic uniforms and slightly darker tone was effective and complementary to the current political climate, but their was still plenty of bright optimism and I got completely into the show. It was incredible.

Afterwards, in line for the bathroom I chatted with a couple of members, asking about their lack of a French horn player. He had been gone for a while, apparently, and they asked if I knew someone. I mentioned that I played, but was in school in Houston, and they told me that if I ever wanted to relocate to let them know.

Certainly, the idea was intriguing. I'm sure it would be an incredible experience, being part of such an incredible group, but in the end, I let it be a daydream. Somewhere there's a Ward that went for it, and I'd love to sit down with him and hear about it, but I've got a great life here and I've got a degree to finish. And I just may not be cut out for touring, anyway. I certainly like my comforts.

After the show we started a slow, tired walk back towards Becca's car and after a laborious negotation process managed to get Cindy's brother and her friend Sarah to meet us at Thai Passion up north. We had a nice Thai dinner and Steve nicely picked up the check.

We headed back to Becca's place and then walked over to Courtney's, picking up some beer on the way. We had a great evening of beer drinking on Courtney's porch. Good beer, good friends, good times.

3/18

We had brunch at an Italian market sort of place, and I enjoyed my breakfast panini with trouffled eggs.

We walked to a nearby record store and looked around a bit before meeting up with Kristin at the unveiling of a mural at a South Austin music store before returning to Becca's place. On the way out of town we saw Becca's piece for the Texas Biennial, which I hadn't seen in person yet, and then made for home.

Becca's Art; Concerts; Lab Dinner

Updates resuming soon my ass. The past six weeks or so have included two (2) trips by air, two (2) trips by car, two (2) weddings, two (2) weekends of company staying at my place, one (1) paper almost finished, and a whole lot of good times.

It has also left me nearly six months behind. So expect to read about those events in, oh, February. For now, I've got to get back in the habit, so in between loads of laundry I'll get at least one entry in before moving on to a late birthday present for Cindy.

3/5

Rebecca arrives in town so that she can do her installation at the Lawndale Art Center, but sporting a minor Wii sports injury on her foot which is starting to look a bit infected. Cindy and I point out our proximity to a minor emergency center before leaving to catch a film at the Angelika.

We see Zodiac, which is quite enjoyable at the beginning, but slows toward the end, and the fact that the real case remains unsolved makes the ending... unsatisfied.

Rebecca opts not to get her foot treated due to the $100 co-pay.

3/6

Cindy and I head off to see the Shins at the Verizon. As is often the case, the show proves less than satisfying, with the sterility of the venue infecting the band's music. I enjoy seeing them, but the most fun is just hanging outside with the smoking crowd, where we find Dan, Nick, Mandy, and, randomly, Bryan's brother Evan, and Katie (that I met at the genetics retreat and her boyfriend, with whom we talk about music, both listening and making.

Afterwards, given Becca's and our proximity to it, Mai's seemed like a great place to meet for a late dinner, and was satisfying and refreshing as usual.

3/7

Hui, who had not felt like much of a part of the lab since long before he graduated, had finally found a job (or at least a post-doc) and so is leaving. Consequently, Olivier arranges a a goodbye event for him. We meet at the Ginger Man for a couple rounds, and for once I arrive early enough to get the free glassware. After that, we amble over to Nit Noi for some Thai. Cindy joins us and meets the lab and Olivier. Olivier orders for us (soup, curry, pad thai, eggplant) and does a good job.

Afterwards, a quick trip by home and then off to numbers for the Explosions in the Sky show, which is characteristically enjoyable. Greg has a new ladyfriend with him...

3/9

Art, Tafia, "the taco train", the Mink

Becca's art show opens Friday night, so she and I head there and immediately grab beers: me for refreshment and her for that good ol' "liquid courage" because she has to give a brief artist's talk. There were a few pieces I liked. The best ones not by Becca are some very intricate paper cuttings attached to the walls that are somewhere between internal organs and flowers, a flickr group called "Never Been to Houston Before" where people that had never... you know, been to Houston posted pictures of what they thought Houston was like; a clever idea, but maybe one that could have done with some editing and focus.

There is also the guy who constructed skateboard-style ramps in a room and used them to run up and along walls, creating patterns of scuffs and documenting the process with his camera. It's a nice combination of performance art and other media, but better in principal than in practice.

Becca's work is, as usual, brilliant. She had covered the floor with white vinyl to give the room a unified look, and then her tape was various shades of blue and worked in clever ways with the doors and corners of the room. Cindy shows up with her brother, as did my parents, aunt and uncle, Dan and Emma, Jeff and Jim, and Will. It's nice for my parents to get to meet some of my closest friends here (particularly Cindy), and I am glad to have brought out support for Becca.

Afterwards, due to familial constraints, Mom and Dad take off. Becca and I go to Tafia to crash an art party, and take advantage of what free food was offered there, although we foolishly buy a round of beers before moving to the free wine. After that, around the corner to Tacos-a-Go-Go for some food with Becca's crew, then to the nearby Mink for some drinks before calling it a night.

3/10

I head out to Susan and Jerry's to catch Mom and Dad for lunch before they head back to Waco. Later that evening, Cindy and I meet up with Molfese, who had moved away with his lab but is back in town for his birthday. We catch him at BW3's, have some wings for dinner, but then have to pass on a Wii session in favor of catching Deerhoof, who put on a good show but whose music I'm not sure I'm arty enough to "get".

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.

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