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.

Super Happy Fun Land; iPhone; Wedding in Austin

I'm just barely squeaking this one in under the 1-year mark. Going to have to work on that...

7/16/07

Our then-recently-acquired new friends Katie (from genetics) and boyfriend Neil had their first gig as Lazy Horse at Super Happy Fun Land (which I believe sold their location and moved). So, notably, I guess the last time I was there.

Anyway, SHFL is awesomely BYOB, so we loaded up a cooler and enjoyed its contents while we sat through the first few bands. Lazy Horse had a good first show, we thought; they play rock but I can't quite figure out how to describe them.

We hadn't had dinner yet, so Cindy and I went to check out Heights establishment Spanish Flower, which Cindy had some sort of history with. I wasn't overly impressed with the food, but any late-night Mexican establishment is a good time.

7/18

I finally got up the nerve to spend 600 freakin' dollars on an iPhone. After picking it up from the galleria, I couldn't get the automated setup process to transfer my T-mobile number, so I then spent a couple hours fighting with AT&T to get them to do it for me after hours. And with that, I had my iPhone.

7/19

Cindy's friend Matt (well, one of them, anyway), was getting married in Austin, and the ceremony was to involve grilling, picknicking, and swimming, so I picked up a swimsuit and Cindy and I hit the grocery store to pick up some items to grill and/or picnic. Ended up with the makings of a salad and a nicely marinated pork tenderloin. Then watched some TV.

7/20

Eventually, we grabbed some Jimmy John's and made our way out of town, getting in late to Cindy's friend Sarah's place in South Austin. We hung out for a while, had a few beers before calling it a night. Tried to catch up with Becca but Austin people have weird conceptions of distance...

7/21

The wedding was outside at Krause Springs (couldn't find a web site) in Spicewood, TX, about half an hour west of Austin. After taking the Mazda over a low water crossing, We showed up, nattily attired in our swimsuits. The ceremony was short, sweet, and a bit hippy-ish/new-agey, which was apparently appropriate to the couple. Also ran in to a professor I knew from school, whose fiancé was apparently a college friend of the bride.

Afterwards, it was lunch time. Cindy and I had smartly grabbed some cans of Shiner Bock (no glass in the park, of course). I ended up helping out with the grilling, and Cindy and I enjoyed our pork and salad.

We went for a swim after lunch, violating my rule about swimming in non-chlorinated bodies of water. The water was nice and cool and the scenery was beautiful, however. And as hippy-ish as the wedding came off, I have to admit I admired the couple's commitment to a small, informal, and relatively inexpensive event.

I finally got to catch up with Becca for dinner. We went to a sort of Italian-ish fusiony-gourmet place on Congress that turned out to be quite good and reasonably priced for the quality. Sat on their nice back yard-ish patio. Can't remember what I had for the life of me.

Cindy & co. were across the street at Guero's, so I rejoined them and bid Becca adieu.

Cindy, Tisen, Sara F., and I had gotten tickets for the conveniently-scheduled Wrens show at Emo's. It happened to be the last show of their tour for The Meadowlands, which was released all the way back in '03. They seemed thrilled to be playing Austin and Emo's for the occasion and

7/22

We drove up from Sarah's place the next day to catch lunch with Rebecca and my parents at the new Ward favorite, South Congress Café. Finally sampled their carrot cake french toast and... wow.

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.

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.

California Prelude

So one of the reasons I haven't written a new post yet is because next up is the California trip that Cindy and I took, and it's really a two-session project, which is a bit of a psychological barrier.

Anyway, to get things moving, here's a PDF (be warned: it's big, 23.5 MB) of the book of photos I had printed for Cindy as a birthday present. There's some slight narration to go along with it; I'll fill in the blanks in my next post.

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.

Kurzweil; Ted Leo; Easter

4/2

Dan DJs at the Prole...

4/3

Got a hair cut in advance of my return home for Easter, and yes, that does qualify as news, since it happens, oh, thre times a year. Band practice that night...

4/4

Ray Kurzweil, inventor, futurist, and post-humanist, was speaking at U of H, so Cindy, lab-mate Martin, and I went to check out the talk. It was good and Kurzweil makes a compelling case, except... well, he doesn't really seem to be a detail guy. Which I suppose is true of most people predicting the future of humanity. But in this case I think a lot of the details that he leaves out and presumes can be easily overcome probably can't. For example, he mentioned RNAi as a way to inhibit individual genes, except it doesn't work consistently or predictably. It may never. There may be other approaches, but just because there are a few examples where we can selectively control the action of genes doesn't mean that we're guaranteed an age where we exercise complete control of our genomes. Nothing is guaranteed until it's working.

As a corollary, he tended to rely on volume of evidence rather than quality. Still, it's hard to deny that the evidence he presented made a compelling case that the human race is on the brink of a singularity, a time where technological progress happens so rapidly that our very nature could change. It will be interesting to see what happens, but just remember, futurists: where are our flying cars and underwater cities? And why can't we teleport yet?

We return to find Cindy's car has been towed, despite previous experiences where U of H didn't tow in the evenings. Handily (?), their tow lot is on site and a walkable distance away, and the fee is a comparatively reasonable (?) $60 or so, far better than the $250 my last towing experience cost me.

We drop Martin off, I call Dad to wish him a happy birthday, and we pick up some Whataburger and watch some TV.

4/5

We go to #s to see Ted Leo play. It's good, high energy rock, but I never quite figure out why I'm just not all that crazy about him. Enjoyable show, but I'm not inspired to buy more Ted Leo & the Pharmacists albums. I do buy a t-shirt with a sort of caduceus on it which I thought was cool, and which, at a med school, seems to frequently confuse people.

4/6

Headed to Waco. Establishing our new tradition, we go to the Claypot with the Hoffmans. I enjoy my tea, spring roll and jalapeño clay pot.

Mom & Dad had recently completed a remodel of the house. Closed off a door from the kitchen to the dining room, added a pass through, all new appliances, new countertops and extended counters, new cabinets, new tile floors in the kitchen/den, and hallways, new hardwood floors in the dining room, new carpet in the bedrooms, new paint everywhere. It's definitely a bit disorienting. Still recognizable as the house I grew up in, but it certainly takes some getting used to.

4/7

Mom and Dad haven't yet unpacked everything that had been removed for the remodel, so we worked on that. Amazingly it was snowing, which made the trips to and from the storage shed cold and wet.

That's right. Easter snow. Never had a white Christmas, but we get a white Easter. Some since of humor that God fellow has.

Steak for me and Dad for dinner, some kind of shrimp pasta for mom and Rebecca. Becca and I head to Cricket's for a couple of beers.

4/8

Church for Easter, a quick Easter lunch, and then back to Houston for me...

Christmas, Robyn, poker, the obligatory night of nothing, bar hopping, return to Houston, NYE

12/25

We awoke, had a nice breakfast, and then opened presents. I got my Nintendo DS and some games, plus some comics, CDs, a nifty vintage shirt from Becca, and a set of cutting boards. Becca liked the fancy remote I got her, Dad liked the presents that he had pretty much picked out. Mom was taken aback by the pottery lessons we gave her, as if she was scared of actually taking them, but I think she ultimately enjoyed them.

Lunch was good too, particularly the Turkey that had been the source of so much contention.

Eventually the evening rolled around, and David, Thomas, Win, Bennett, Goates, and myself all piled into Thom's grandparents' Buick. Someone (*cough* David *cough*) insisted on going with his intellectual "let's slum it with the common man" bullshit and we went to some small bar on N. 19th not too far from MCC, got weird looks when we came in, had a round and played a game of pool, and left for the next spot just up the road, which was, thankfully, closed. From there I think we went next to the bar (Shooter's? Booter's?) on Valley Mills near New Road, which had seen a bit of a country western face lift, had a couple rounds there, and then on to the sister bar on Lake Air (which could also be Shooter's or Booter's), which still looked like it used to be a strip club. Next to Chapter 11, which I'm actually kind of fond of.

There was a girl there who spotted my "Remember the Alico" t-shirt and introduced herself. She asked about the shirt, and after my brief explanation of living in Houston, etc., she summarized it by saying that I was "representing", which I suppose was accurate. We chatted a little more; turned out she was an art person and trying to do something for the art "scene" in Waco. She compared herself to a Buddhisatva (which I think was just meant to be humorous rather than arrogant/condescending) in that she had found "enlightenment" (i.e. moved away from Waco) but come back to teach the unenlightened (i.e. the Wacoans). Also, she mentioned that she had dated two girls I knew. Huh. She invited me some art show she was putting together (which I wouldn't be in town for) and insisted I track her down on myspace. Check.

Anyway, there was lots of drinking that had been done by that point, and thankfully the driving was not my responsibility. As was pretty much inevitable, Two Minnie's (right down the block) was settled on as the next destination.

Two years prior when we went, it was basically deserted, but this year the "joint was hopping", as the kids say. I wasn't particularly excited about Waco strippers, but the beer kept flowing which was good enough for me. David kept handing me dollar bills to use, and I kept redirecting them to Jordan and Bennett.

By closing time, we were even drunker, particularly Bennett. We went on to IHOP to get something to soak up the alcohol.

So, another nice, debaucherous Christmas night. But, thankfully no emergency room trip this year.

12/26

As is also traditional, we tried to catch up with Robyn. We ended up meeting her, first trying Cricket's (too fucking crowded) and then heading next door to Bogart's (formerly Malone's). Robyn had Cara Beth in tow, much to my surprise (they tend to go in and out of speaking to each other). After a round or two, we migrated to Scruff's (which had rearranged, much to my shock and consternation), I had my "Ziggy Jack" (Ziegenback and Jack Daniel's, a creation of one of the bartenders), and then we made a second night of IHOP.

12/27

David decided to host a poker night at his father's place in Temple. A lack of planning meant that Win had already gone there without giving us the chance to carpool, which briefly pissed me off, but really going to Temple is no different from going to visit my Aunt and Uncle (except perhaps not as visually interesting), so it wasn't a big deal.

So there was beer and poker. Despite Win's online poker activities and David's frequent mocking of my decisions, in the end it was down to me and Bennett, with me leading substantially. But I tire of poker quickly, so we negotiated a truce. But hell, I won $15.

12/28

As always, there was one night when shit just didn't happen. In this case, David fell asleep. So, it was a night for me with the DS. Which is not all bad.

12/29

The last night in town. David once again pushed the blue collar bars, and we compromised on Fred & Wally's. Beer and pool were consumed and played. We tried to catch Kacie McClain but no such luck. David was leaving the next morning, so I picked that day as the time to...

12/30

...go back to Houston. I left in the early evening, car packed up. With my new phone complete with screws, and leaving Waco where it got crap reception, I oficially called and got my number transferred to the new phone. Which meant I incurred a $150 charge with Cingular for breaking my contract (and was also charged sales tax, what the fuck were they selling me that got taxed!), but that would later be mitigated by Ebaying the old phone, and since the new one was free, I ended up getting teh whole deal done for $50 or so. Not bad.

Anyway, I got back in town, got unloaded, and caught up with Cindy. It was good to be back.

12/31

I saw a post online that Toys 'R Us had a nice clearance special on DS and Gameboy games, so I went for the first time in years. Actually the last time I went was sophomore year of college in Waco, when I was having some difficulty tracking down the Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Anyway, I ended up finding a couple of good bargains. After that I made a comic store run, and then met Cindy back at my place.

We decided that for NYE we would make some fresh salsa and then cook dinner. The salsa turned out well. Dinner was some NY strip steak that Dad had sent home with me, green beans, and mashed potatoes. We learned a couple of lessons from that dinner.

First, if you don't have something to mash with, don't use a food processor. The potatoes will resemble library paste. Second, if you combine garlic, butter, and lemon juice, and heat it up (as in making a lemon butter sauce), it turns a strong shade of cyan. Strange but true.

One option was to join Dan at the Proletariat for the NY party there (it turns out that things had gone south with Kristin and that she had decided to move to Austin after all). But since we don't hang out with Cindy's friends much, we opted to go to Jim and Nikki's place to join them, Tyson and Louisa for a relaxed evening. There was beer and the salsa was a hit. By the time we considered leaving, Dan was already gone from the Proletariat, so we stuck it out there.

It's not quite the wild party I really want for NYE, but it was nice enough, and we still managed to stay out pretty late.

P.S. I want it noted that I stayed up late just to finish this post. There's a token of committment there for you.

Fancy meal, Christmas with Cindy; Phone and Cousin Jer; Preparations; Trip to Waco; Waco day 2; Christmas Eve

12/18

Pretty sure I spent a good deal of time wrapping Christmas Presents that night. It's not something I'm good at, and my choice of cheap wrapping paper combined with my neurotic perfectionist tendencies made it difficult.

12/19

So one thing I wanted to do with all my extra money was to take Cindy somewhere nice for dinner. And what better way to express your love than through vast quantities of grilled meat? With that in mind, we went to Nelore .

Thomas and I have previously gone to Fogo de Chao on a couple occasions, and I was certainly a big fan. Great meat and lots of it; expensive but worth every penny. When I saw, a while back, a review in the Houston Press of this place, and that its owner was a former employee of Fogo, and that it was a good $15 cheaper per-plate I started looking for an excuse to go, and now I had one.

First, the service was great. Very professional. Free valet, too. The building was cute, definitely cozier and more romantic than Fogo. The salad bar was likable, being less about salad and more about antipasto sorts of things. There were some side dishes available there too, stew sorts of things that I couldn't quite figure out how they fit in with the meal.

Everything was fine so far. But when we flipped our little coasters over to the "bring us meat" sides, disappointment ultimately came. The meat was overcooked, dry, and underseasoned. I wanted very much to like the place, but next time I'll spend the extra money and go to Fogo. Shame, that.

We returned to my place. There may have been some dessert. We definitely exchanged presents. I had given up on the waffle iron, particularly in the face of mounting evidence that her parents had probably gotten her one, and what I really wanted to get her was a bit out of budget. Instead, I got her a TV antenna so she could finally experience the HD part of her HDTV; an FM transmitter for her iPod so she could listen to it in her car (and, hopefully, to keep me from having to listen to talk radio and the same damn 10 scratched CDs she keeps in her car although that doesn't seem to have quite worked out); one of Found Magazine's compiled books, which I noticed she spent quite a bit of time looking at when we were at Dome a few weeks before; and trash bags. Nice trash bags with the diamond-patterned reinforcements and built-in drawstrings. She'd been envious of mine for quite some time, and so I bought them for her, mainly as a joke, although I like to think she's enjoyed using them, to the extent that one can enjoy trash bags (that aren't filled with some kind of gaseous narcotic).

As for what she got me, well, here it is. It was a very thoughtful gift, and she spent way more on me than she should have, and it's really a cool piece of equipment: a compact, portable turntable that can be battery operated, fit in a record crate, has a built-in speaker, and also audio outs for hooking up to my stereo.

Except that, as we all know, I'm horribly, horribly picky about my audio equipment. I'd probaly eventually have gotten around to getting my own turntable, probably for around 5x what this cost. And so I was kind of left with something that I didn't really want.

But I was good. I was very excited and appreciative and all that. There was no sense in being a dick about it. And it has been fun to have, because, really, I probably wouldn't have gotten around to buying a nice turntable for a long time. And it was a really nifty, thoughtful gift. Now I just have to come up with a good plan for how I'm going to explain buying a new one in a year or two...

Anyway, all in all, it was a nice little "date night".

12/20

Cousin Jer was in town for a visit, so I figured I'd try to catch up with him. Also, my brand new phone finally arrived. I forestalled Cousin Jer time to get the phone set up, only to discover, upon removing it from its packaging, that a screw was missing. Which was very disappointing. It completely screwed up my plan of getting to try out the phone for a couple of days and get my number ported over before going to Waco. And I didn't know quite what to do. Try to find a screw? Call Amazon? Call T-mobile? It was complicated.

Anyway, I put that aside and had to deal with the inconvenience of going to pick Jer up from out in BFE, and brought him back out here, knowing I'd have to return him at some point. I was a bit put off by the situation, but we ended up having a good time. We went to check out Two Rows for dollar beer night (and I think ran into some people), and then, when it got to be closing time, headed to Woodrow's.

Taking Jer out in Houston is always fun, if for no other reason than that he's appreciative of the embarassment of riches we have in the way of attractive women. I guess living in the midwest does that to a man. There was one girl at Woodrow's, who had apparently been scammed into a double date with her friend's boyfriend's friend and was not at all happy with it, so she decided to hit on Jerry instead. First she asked for his number, and then wrote her number on a receipt after he bought her a drink. I never really get how he does it... Anyway, all in all it was a good time.

12/21

Jer stayed over and I ended up taking back home the next day. I gave up on my idea of leaving for Waco that day, as I hadn't packed and still had this whole phone issue to deal with. Instead, I made the long round trip of taking him home. While in the car, the girl from the previous night called him. They ended up going out a few times over the holiday, apparently. Susan and Uncle Jerry apparently liked the girl, though they were a bit disturbed knowing that they had met in a bar (apparently that's a foreign concept to them). Jerry ultimately couldn't commit to anything, living out of state as he does, and somehow this is all my fault (according to Susan), because they met because of me.

So anyway, back at the apartment, I did some packing and started making calls about my new phone. Amazon actually has really good phone service, once you find their number. They agreed to ship me one next day, and even rerouted it to Waco. Except it didn't ship out the same day, but instead on Friday, and then with the weekend and the holiday it didn't show up until the next week. But it turns out that T-mobile reception at the house in Waco is crap, so I ended up not activating the phone until I headed back to Houston the following week anyway.

I got a little Zelda time in that night and got to hang out with Cindy, too.

12/22

Got on the road to Waco early afternoon. The goal was to make it back to Waco in time for John Mark Hoffman's (friend of the family) surprise birthday party at Poppa Rollo's. Got there the same time as Dad, somehow. Spent good time with Mom and Dad. Ate pizza. Made awkward small talk with some of Mom and Dad's church friends from our First Methodist days. In retrospect, wished I had ordered a beer.

After that, home, Becca showed up, and we had some good family time.

12/23

Having a hard time remembering specifics. I don't think I caught up with the guys, as David wasn't in town yet and Thom was out at his parents' place in Groesbeck. Actually, I think the Hoffmans came over and exchanged presents with us. They very nicely got me both the Sufjan Stevens Christmas boxed set, and the import-only Okkervil River tour EP I'd been really wanting. Sweet.

12/24

Christmas Eve. We took some food and things out to our former maid's apartment, as we do every year. Went to church for Christmas Eve service. Dinner at Ninfa's, which has become a tradition. Had their great chicken breast/cheese/butter/rice/ham/white wine dish. Drove around looking at Christmas lights. Got a little sick later from too much rich food. Despite that, enjoyed my absolute favorite time of the year.

Dallas; Waco; Car Bullshit

7/14

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

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

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

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

7/15

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

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

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

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

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

7/16

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

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

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

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

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

7/17

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

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

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

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

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

6/25

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

6/26

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




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

6/27

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

6/28

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

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

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



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

6/29

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

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

6/30

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

7/1

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

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

6/15

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

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

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

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




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

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

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

6/16

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

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

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

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

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





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




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

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

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

6/17

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

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

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

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

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


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

6/18

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