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.

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.

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

• 11:45 Bah. Committee meeting tomorrow. Must finish presentation... #
• 12:01 Pitchfork's new fonts: difficult to read at chosen size, exacerbated by using serif for heads and sans for body, rather than vice versa. #
• 12:03 Body text is Calibri; head text is Cambria. I need per-site font settings. #
• 15:51 Made mistake of taking iBuds on the shuttle instead of Ultimate Ears. Regretting. Too many people talking engine noise. #
• 21:37 Somebody thinks they're clever, and they're right: bg5000.tumblr.com/post/31854880 #
• 21:37 Did you know Jack Handey was real? www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/books/04/15/books.jack.handey.ap/index.html #
• 21:43 Seems like Jack Handey and Douglas Adams had use similar techniques to construct their sentences to comedic effect. #
• 21:49 "Eldest children are punished more". I knew it! tinyurl.com/yvrra8/news/2008/04/16/npunish116.xml #
• 22:52 Dairy Queen ad narrator sounds like Dubya, or at least a Dubya impersonator. #

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Tweets for Today

• 11:05 ACL '08 lineup: meh. twurl.nl/5br5z6 #
• 12:18 Boss "suggested" I come to the genetics seminar. Hate it when that happens. Better things to do plus bad signal in here. #
• 15:08 Annoyed, for some reason. Construction in adjacent rooms not helping. #
• 15:25 Monster Cable, you just got served: twurl.nl/hnyhrj #
• 15:31 That letter to Monster Cable just brightened my day. I read the whole thing. #
• 15:44 PowerPoint 2008, though less ugly than the previous version, is also less fast. I am undecided which compromise I prefer. #
• 16:15 Oh Excel, why won't you let me make a *series* of pie charts, formatted identically? Sometimes one pie just isn't enough. #
• 16:35 Finding the Raconteurs album aurally fatiguing. They may be professional, but whoever mixed it wasn't. Low dynamic range, I think. #
• 16:46 The last White Stripes album had some bad clipping. Why be all anal about analog recording and then screw it up in mastering? #
• 17:05 Up next, Love As Laughter's vintage "The Greks Bring Gifts" which I finally tracked down. Contains "Singing Sores Make Perfect Swords". #
• 17:06 Which sounds lo-fi in a My Bloody Valentine haze of sound sort of way. #
• 17:09 Maybe also in a Times New Viking way too. There's a line that was crossed, somewhere. #
• 17:47 This LaL album is all over the place. The MBV-ish tracks are good. The more garage-ish tracks are iffy and a bit too demo-ish. #
• 18:04 Mmm... Grado SR60s never fair to satisfy. An amazing pair of headphones. #
• 18:20 Next, Silkworm's "Firewater". Good stuff. Better than "Libertine", close to son-of-Silkworm Bottomless Pit's great "Hammer of the Gods". #
• 19:22 So far, I'm iffy on this Why? album. But it seems that music listened to and work accomplished on any given day are correlated. #
• 19:46 Why's not bad, but I keep feeling like I have more rewarding things to be listening to. I may come around to it, though. #
• 00:48 Ever wonder about the &? www.adobe.com/type/topics/theampersand.html #

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Tweets for Today

• 12:01 Monday. Bad: have to work on CM presentation. Good: free Goode Co. BBQ after class; boss has not yet returned. #
• 12:21 Monday. Ugly: guy in lab's fiancé has temporarily taken up residence in lab; they whisper to each other a lot. #
• 14:41 This will end well, too. Blockbuster is on a roll: twurl.nl/0ife8j #
• 15:39 Time to trek over to Rice... #
• 16:09 Jack White is a *professional*. New Raconteurs album may be more artisansl than artistic, but I marvel at the sheer competency on display. #
• 16:10 Now this is a beautiful spring day. Ever so slightly crisp, sunny, some nice wind. Beautiful day to tackle a couple walks. #
• 16:51 Microsoft was not a competitor to Compaq. Please refrain from asking asinine questions, classmate. #
• 16:53 Lesson learned: Compaq, like M$, succeeded on the pure dumb luck of being in the right place at the right time. #
• 23:25 Bad neck ache ruined my afternoon/evening. Just woke up from a very therapeutic nap. #
• 01:53 Shoe shopping online is about 100x less annoying than having to do it in person. As is true of most forms of online shopping. #
• 02:31 2 days of having no tabs in my browser at the end of the day (at least at home). This is down from ~100 tabs usually waiting to be read. #

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Tweets for Today

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

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Tweets for Today

• 13:28 The mystery of the unknown key has beensolved. It's to the complex's pedestrian gate. No wonder I didn't recognize it. I've never used it! #
• 14:10 Hah. This will go well. tinyurl.com/6krmrq #
• 15:17 Cool houses: tinyurl.com/5voudp #
• 15:50 Preparing for thesis committee meeting. Worst 2 parts of my year. God willing, this is my second-to-last one. #
• 17:38 First take on Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin's new album: too damned slick. #
• 18:51 I'm glad that on my iPhone, Mobile Safari no longer causes the iPod app to crash with great frequency. #
• 03:01 Enough No More Heroes for one night; I suppose it's bed time. #

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Tweets for Today

• 12:45 It's the patio. Done deal. #
• 12:49 Silliness: paying $10 for 2 day birthday present shipping, realizing it shipped to wrong address, paying $8 to ship to intended recipient. #
• 13:09 Considering this spectacular deal for the new patio: rickroll.it/830781 but worried about theft potential. #
• 14:05 Buried in this article, looks like I might be getting an HEB! Finally! tinyurl.com/69wzp6 #
• 15:49 Taking the shuttle to Rice is lazy and takes as long as walking, but it looks an awful lot like rain... #
• 18:00 If there's a projector problem, b-school prof usually jokes "Is it Mac?" But It isn't a) a Mac or b) funny. Laughter anyway, though. Sad... #
• 18:02 Kevin Rose's home theater: lame. tinyurl.com/5jcsu2 #
• 18:36 Wow, Office '08 sort of does look less ugly. #

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Tweets for Today

Daily Twitterings:

• 08:17 Had a dream last night where I lived in a sane world that allowed harmless pocket knives on planes. #
• 16:08 I know I'm spoken for, but trying to sit by the cute girl in class still seems reasonable, if only for purely aesthetic reasons. #
• 16:22 Quizzes. I'm to old for this shit. Good thing this isn't for credit. #
• 17:10 Speaker, your makering spiel is not useful. Give me the benefit of your experience. You're not trying to sell me something. I hope. #
• 17:31 For the love of God, stop referring to your corporate "DNA" #
• 17:32 number of cell phones that rang in class today: 3. #
• 20:28 Highlight of day may have been correcting an error in an iLounge review of speakers. #

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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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Tweets for Today

Daily Twitterings:

• 14:53 The construction going on in every room abutting mine melds surprisingly well with the Fuck Buttons album. Surprisingly well. #
• 15:09 What kind of publisher doesn't give the author a chance to proof the final layout? #
• 17:35 How fucking hard is it to silence your phone in class? 3 phones went off today! And then people don't silence them when they do ring! Mo ... #
• 21:27 Every morning I think 5 minutes of sleep would benefit me more than a freshly-trimmed beard, and every morning I'm so wrong. #

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Thief

Somebody took my lunch out of the lab refrigerator. It was a nice Central Market boxed lunch, it was free, and now it's gone, and I'm hungry. Is fucking nothing sacred?

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.

Well, I forgot to make notes for this week. I've reconstructed it as best I can. If it's not on my calendar (the two concerts were), not on my credit card bill, not in my e-mail, and not in my notes, it's lost to history, I suppose.

6/4

Thanks to Bryan's IM logs, I now know that I saw Knocked Up. I remember being entertained. Not a brilliant film or anything, but funny enough. Thanks Bryan.

6/6

I'd been wanting to try Alton Brown's meatloaf recipe, which verges on the untraditional, so Cindy and I tackled it. Despite some geometric issues due to my lack of a loaf pan for shaping, the loaf turned out moist and tasty. I had many a meatloaf sandwich in the ensuing days.

6/7

Since I had last seen the Hold Steady, their album went from being something I'd listened to once to my favorite of the year. So, needless to say, I was excited about the show. And I had a plan. Obviously, music that revolved so heavily around drinking required much drinking to be properly enjoyed, right?

I had recruited Will to join Cindy and I, figuring that he would enjoy both the drinking and the blue-collar-rock-as-tool-for-literary-analysis-of-blue-collar-teens-and-young-adults. He came, we drank many beers very quickly, and the world's best bar band took the stage.

It was absolutely perfect. The drunken community of the crowd, shouting out lyrics and such ("who-o-o-o-ah"; "gonna walk around and drink some more" etc.). The band's beyond enthusiastic performance. It's one of the few times I'm glad a show was packed. All the elements of that night worked synergistically. And I had made Cindy drive.

6/8

OK, so I may have been not at the top of my game the next day. But it was worth it. And it was of little significance; the boss was leaving for his big summer sabatical. He took a few of us out to lunch, gave us a pep talk, and the smell of sweet freedom was in the air.

That night, Cindy and I had tickets to see Calvin Johnson (of Beat Happening, K Records, the Halo Benders, a fuck-ton of cameos, etc.) at the Aurora Picture Show up in the heights, taking a break from its usual role of screening underground and independent films to serve as a music venue. I'm pretty sure the building is a converted church; I'm too lazy to check the, but at least take that facts, but at least take that for its descriptive value. I'm pretty sure we sat in pews. I had been told that it was kosher to BYOB, but I'll tell you that regardless of context, it feels weird to slip your cooler up under a pew.

The opener, a young lady who played solo, was good if I recall correctly. But I'm too lazy to look up her name.

Calvin took the "stage" primarily solo with some occasional instrumental assists, but the format was of little concern, because even without a band the man is an electrifying performer. His commanding yet awkward boom of a voice, combined with his theatrical stage presence kept the audience quiet and rapt. I particularly enjoyed the Halo Benders (his project with Built to Spill's Doug Martsch) songs that he played. I don't think he played any Beat Happening but I'm not sure; I'd imagine that most of his material came from his solo work, but it could also have been from other bands of his with which I am unfamiliar. In keeping with the indie pop/twee tradition, his songs were sparse, prescious, funny, and surprisingly affecting and powerful. It was an interesting counterpoint to the night before, and a genuinely beautiful show.

The man himself was personable afterwards, guiding me in my choice of CD purchases and t-shirts—I chose his "Impeach" t-shirt, which he explained was what he would rather see people wear than something with his name on it.

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.

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

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

5/14

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

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

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

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

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

5/15

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

5/16

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

5/17

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

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

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

5/18

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

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

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

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

5/19

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

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

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

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

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

5/20

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

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).

Committee meeting; chili cookoff; Jeff's party; Voxtrot; Cindy's company

4/23

More committee meeting preparation.

4/24

The committee meeting went well. Good data, good progress, etc. Afterwards, either band practice or some well-reserved relaxation. Can't quite remember...

4/25

Cindy and I made a Central Market run to get chili supplies. I'll tell you, spending someone else's money at Central Market is a wonderful, wonderful feeling.

We also picked up some dinner supplies. We tried a Good Eats recipe for eggplant, basted with steak sauce, broiled, topped with a nice crisp layer of parmesan (we used the good stuff and it was totally worth it). Add a nice salad and we had a great meal to accompany our viewing of Lost.

4/26

I snuck away from school for a while to get the supplies to Char. Except there was a little car mishap (on his part). So things took a while longer, and I had just enough time to run back into work to make sure my absence hadn't been too conspicuous (it hadn't) and collect Cindy before heading out to Char's place in BFE.

Our brilliant last-minute inspiration was to smoke the meat. That and adding bacon and bacon grease. The girls were working on decorations for our cook-off booth and on tie-dying t-shirts. We were under a bit of a time crunch, though, and after we got most of the three gallons of chili assembled, Cindy and I took off to catch Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at Warehouse.

Given my long-time hatred of the Warehouse (particularly its acoustics), and my not being overly impressed with their new album, I wasn't expecting much. But damned if they didn't turn it up a notch live. It's amazing what a little more energy and a live setting can add sometimes (or take away sometimes, but that's another story).

After that, back out to BFE to finish up the story. By 3 or so, it was done, and it was good. We packed it up to take to the even the next day.

4/27

So the big day had come. I had worked hard, prepared, and was ready to lay an Iron Chef-style smackdown on the representatives of the Houston biomedical health industry on behalf of my generous funding agency.

After some minor emergencies (leaky camp stoves necessitating the purchase of a new one; forgetting the cumin), the final batch of chili was on and the beer was flowing. One of my committee members was there and proved to be a pain in the ass, culinarily (and he later talked smack about our chili), but he ultimately let us do our thing. Lunch time came around and we started dishing it up. The feedback was good. Many people either said that this was the best chili they'd had all day, or that they had been told to come over to our booth for the best chili. Also, the judges came over to steal our superior beer, which we figured mean they owed us something. Also, I tried some of the other chili. One batch was burnt. One batch, I'm pretty sure, was repurposed Wendy's chili, another Wolf brand. One batch had crayfish, which is wrong on so many levels I don't even know where to start. So I had high hopes.

We prepared the official samples for the judges and sent them over, and then waited to get the official bowls to send to the finals round. Except they never came. We got passed up in favor of, for example, the Wendy's chili repurposers. Apparently the beer we let the judges have did us no good whatsoever, and, insult to injury, we were out of beer. I mean, you can insult a man's chili, or take his beer, but hell, don't do both!

So in the end we concluded that either a) this was entirely a political game or b) the judges had no tastes. But the feedback I got from the general populace was good, and in the end I have a chili recipe that I'm damned proud of.

Afterwards I went home for a nap before Cindy and I headed up to Jeff's for his housewarming/going away from U of H party. A good time was had by all, particularly one of Jeff's lab mates and her husband who apparently got drunk enough to earn themselves a lifetime ban from future Jeff/Jim parties.

4/28

Cindy's good friend and Austinian Sarah and her (now ex-) boyfriend John were in town for a visit. Voxtrot had been signed on for a free show (promoting the Yaris) at the local Urban Outfitters. After fighting for parking in the Village, we all met up and got to see a nice, free show (though one that was, quite obviously, an all-ages show). We next (including Dan and his daughter Emma) walked down the street for a beer (or two) at the Gingerman. I'd always thought Dan and Sara would get along well if not get along well, and though both were spoken for at the time, having them meet was a good first step. Post-beer, Dan took off to get Emma home by a decent hour, and the remaining four of us went to the two doors down Istanbul for dinner before going back to Cindy's to hang out.

4/29

We headed up to Empire Cafe the next morning for some breakfast/brunch/lunch before Sarah and John left town. I had some decent penne rustica.

But it was no chili. Throughout the next week I'd use the leftovers in many forms. In a bowl, as part of a frito pie, on hot dogs; all spectacular. Those judges... there's just no conceiving of what the hell went wrong there. Maybe the cups were mislabeled.

Recording; Bill Callahan; Science of Sleep; Tapes 'n Tapes

4/16

Another Monday at the Prole. These come to an end soon when Dan gets tired of the DJ gig.

4/17

With Jeff's new toy, we had our first recording session. I've got some rough mixes from that, and though they're far from perfect sonically or musically, it's pretty damned cool having recordings of us. Vincent will be graduating soon. I'd like to have something akin to an EP finished before he goes, but that takes time. Lots of time.

4/18

Back in December we were fortunate enough to attend Joanna Newsom's magical performance at the Orange Show. You might recall that Bill Callahan—formerly of (smog)—opened the show. Well, he had another show booked here to kick off the tour for his new album, Woke on a Whaleheart. My friend Zach, owner of Austin's Backspin Records, had sent out a request for someone to shoot video of the show, a request that came from Bill to Zach through Zach's wife, who was touring as part of Bill's band.

So, sensing an opportunity, I passed the opportunity along to Greg, who likes to do the whole video camera thing. In doing so I managed to get he, myself and Cindy on the guest list. Sweet.

So we show up at the Orange Show. First act is Astronautalis, whom I might have realized sooner that I had actually seen before had he still been called MC Astronautalis. Turns out I saw him when he played a Polyphonic Spree Christmas show in... 2001? Anyway, I recall him wearing a t-shirt that said "World's Greatest Lover 1981" and he did a freestyle about that. Maybe he did some breakdancing too, or maybe that was somebody else.

Regardless, I wouldn't have expected what I got at the Orange Show that night. Astronautalis (or Andy, which I have less of a tendency to misspell) has a rap background, but hearing him that night, indie rock was the first thing that really came to mind. I mean, hip hop, in general, bores me. I think a large part of that is due to repetitive production, and with Andy, I don't have to worry about that. Modest Mouse, Built to Spill, Explosions in the Sky, lo-fi, K Records; these are all influences. Sonically and lyrically, you get something that's dense, intense, and emotionally evocative. I violated my "don't buy before you try" policy and bought his CD right then and there. Apparently he's a huge Bill Callahan fan, as are his parents who had flown in from Florida for the show that night, hence Andy having the gig. (As a side note, I saw him play this weekend and it was phenomenal. But more on that in... six months?)

So anyway, Bill Callahan was up next. I found his folky songs much more enjoyable with his full band (mostly culled from Austin act Shearwater), but ultimately I wasn't crazy about it. I 'd be interested to hear how it compares to his older (smog) material, though.

But the Orange Show is so great that you don't have to be crazy about the act to have a great time, and we did. Yay Orange Show.

4/19

Committee meeting time, and I wanted to be able to work in the Tapes 'n Tapes show on Sunday, so I worked late...

4/21

I worked on a Saturday. That's how committed I was to having everything ready so that I could go to the Tapes 'n Tapes show. Yep. Dedication.

After calling it quits at work, Cindy and I watched The Science of Sleep. It was cute and quirky in that Amelie sort of way. But ultimately it was sort of tragic. It would have been easy for it to have ended well, but it just... didn't. I'm a sucker for happy endings. I readily admit it. So my suggestion is if you watch this, stop it ten minutes before it's over. Make up your own ending.

4/22

More working on the weekend. But it was all to get to see Tapes 'n Tapes play at Numbers. The show was... maybe a little disappointing. But it'd be hard to top the intimacy and energy of that show at Super Happy Fun Land a mere day or two before they blew up at SxSW that year. Maybe it was subjective, but they just didn't quite translate to the bigger venue very well.

In Real Life...

Busy week ahead. Revisions on one paper, trying to figure out what to do with another paper that got rejected (well, that's a negative way to look at it; we'll say they "declined our offer to allow them to publish the article"); trying to get some programming done that will yield another paper (hopefully), and then putting a poster together for retreat in the latter half of the week. Busy busy. But at least I'm not Cindy, who has not one but two papers that have to be rushed out lest they be scooped...

Other than that, things are good. Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze a couple of entries in this week.

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...

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.

Lab meeting and new toy; BBQ; Vinyl Edge and Jana Hunter

2/5

Did the lab meeting thing. I had new data which covered up any inadequacies in my presentation quite nicely.

Took off early to get home and grab my new toy, a Roku Soundbridge M1001. Of course, it ended up not really working. But more on that later.

Later: Cindy, TV, and Dan DJs at the Prole.

2/8

Once I had, new toy in hand, listened for a while to the receiver that Oliver had given to me, I noticed the right channel going in and out, and after confirming that the problem did not lie with my speakers or my subwoofer crossover/amp, I decided that I liked the receiver well enough to see about getting it cleaned, etc. At least I thought that was what it needed. Some of the switches made some noise when they were flipped, so I figured that was what it needed. And the backlighting seemed to be dim in one place.

So I first called up the one stereo store in town that I had any amount of faith in, Audio Concepts, who had previously been very nice about showing me some Magnepans and some Vandersteens (speakers). I asked if they did service or could refer me to someone. After telling them about the vintage Pioneer receiver, they referred me to somebody that did warranty work for Pioneer gear.

They were assholes. "Well, we don't have time to be wasting on old gear, so we'll do it when we can get to it, and it'll probabaly cost $400." Fuck you, you pretentious dicks.

So, on to polling through the "TV and radio repair" (how quaint!) section of Citysearch. I made about 20 calls. There was "no, we don't do that". There was "yes, we can do that; is it under warranty"—I said it was from 1974; your asking if it's under warranty clearly shows that you were not listening, or that you're an idiot, neither of which results in you getting my business. There was "yes, we can probably do that". And finally, there were two "Don't those old Pioneers sound great? We'll go over it with a fine tooth comb. All we do is service, so we want to earn your business." Bingo. One was west of the loop and the other was in Clearlake; and so I went with the one that was closer, Houston Audio Video.

Anyway, once I had found a place, I took Thursday morning and drove out and dropped it off to be, hopefully, well cared for.

Over Christmas, Dad, Becca and I had smoked some more ribs. We backed off on the rub too much, and they weren't quite as good, but that's nothing that heating them up slow in the oven drenched in BBQ sauce wouldn't fixed.

So to enjoy that, Cindy came over and she made potato salad and I made baked beans, and we had a nice little BBQ dinner together.

After that, a little trip up to Woodrow's to meet some people for some beer.

2/9

Got a ride with Char to seminar. At Rice, all visitor parking is paid, and fairly steep at that. However, there seems to be some sort of understanding that you can park along the interior streets, if you leave your emergency flashers on. I'd certainly done it before, and Char was in the habit of doing it for Keck.

Except he forgot to turn his flashers on. So when we got out, he had a ticket. Under the comments section, "no flashers". That's right. Flashers equals no ticket; no flashers equals ticket. There's some kind of internal logic there, but nothing that can really be considered logic in the strict sense of the word.

2/10

Detour to Vinyl Edge; Jana @ Rudz

Despite the fact that Susan and Jerry had warned me against going there after dark, I took the jaunt from their place over to Vinyl Edge not too far east of them, which Cindy insisted was perfectly safe. And, well, it was.

Anyway, the point to this excercise was to buy a few concert tickets without the service fee. But I checked out the shop while I was there. Small place, lots and lots of records, a lot of which weren't really... organized. If I was a real record collector, I could imagine the place being very exciting. Still, interesting to check out, and mission accomplished.

Afterwards, Cindy and I went up to Rudyard's to see Jana Hunter play. She seemed glad to see us there, but quite nervous: when onstage, "I like it when you guys are quiet. It makes it feel like I'm not performing for an audience". Anyway, good show.

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.

MLK; KILLER ICE STORM OF '07; El Tiempo & Bukowski

1/15

In a cruel twist of fate, I spent my day off mostly sleeping, as I had some symptoms that some would think might indicate that I was sick. So I slept it off, had some green tea, some emercen-c, some fruit juice, slept it off some more. There were better things I could have been doing, but at least I wasn't at work.


1/16

Things got cold, as in below freezing, which means, of course, that civilization is at risk of grinding to a halt. And, God willing, no school.

Dan called me up and he was braving the apocalyptic weather for some drinks at Rudz. At the time, the weather hadn't quite worked its way below 32, and the precipitation was minimal, so I figured I'd risk it. We also made a stop off at the Proletariat before calling it a night.

1/17

Of course, God was not willing (or at least school wasn't), so I was greeted by this message:

Weather Update: College open
posted 01/17/2007

Update: 5:30 A.M. - Jan. 17

The College is open and conducting normal business operations. Employees who live in northern, western and 290 areas, where there have been higher accumulations of ice, should contact their supervisors about arriving late to allow time for roadways to be sanded, ice to thaw and travel to be safer.

All employees are encouraged to be cautious in traveling to work. Employees unable to come to work due to personal situations must contact their supervisor and arrange for time off.

Dicks.

1/19

Cindy came over for Grey's Anatomy and we attempted to make snake bites, but we never could get the Guiness to layer properly on top of the cider. One day I will learn...

1/20

I was lazy Saturday afternoon, then ran around taking care of some errands, in the process finding some bargain GameCube games. I gave up on going out to Susan and Jerry's, and instead came home.

I stopped off to get the mail, and, moments later my phone rang; apparently Oliver was in the complex. He was going out to dinner with some friends to El Tiempo, which I had only been to the one time, and he invited me along, so I decided to join them.

I ended up not really knowing anyone, which was definitely awkward, but hell, them's some good fajitas.

They were then going to meet up with some people (including ones I actually knew), but I figured I'd try to catch up with Cindy.

We were going to go to the MFAH for one of their shindigs, but we arrived late and the line was around the block. Some people were buying museum memberships to jump to the front of the line, but they were pretty expensive and it just wasn't worth that. I had lobbied against it from the beginning, feeling strangely antisocial, but Cindy had told her roommate we would meet them there. But you can't argue with the facts, so we left.

Instead, we went and rented a movie and then picked up some ingredients for sangria. The sangria turned out decently, but I think I can probably do better in the future.

The movie was Factotum. My familiarity with Bukowski is only really due to Modest Mouse; their previous album had a song named after him, and their song "Long Distance Drunk" was based on a short story (which I actually read). The movie was pretty good. The story arc wasn't particularly strong, but the acting and dialogue were good and I'm guessing it gave a pretty good feel for Bukowski's style.

1/21

Not much going on Sunday. Did some cleaning up and such, and played some DS.

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.

NYD; Day off; Two Rows'; Children of Men; Monster Trucks; Work

Spurred by a friend request from Erica Shatford on Facebook, I begin pilfering profiles to find (well, I could keep this aliteration thing going, but I won't) people (OK, couldn't resist) to add to my friend list. Facebook is so much more pleasant than the blight that is Myspace. Any