East meets west meets south

I had leftovers tonight. The pork with grits and corn came from dinner with Mollie at the Roaring Fork last night. The noodles I brought back from my trip to Houston for the holidays:


The noodles were part of a meal of Taiwanese comfort food (including pork with bamboo shoots and corn) that my parents had to celebrate the beginning of winter:


And no winter festival meal is complete without the traditional red bean and tangyaun soup:


My trip home was short. I barely had time to see the extended family before driving back to Austin Saturday night. A little bad planning on my part, but I wanted to relax some Sunday before going back to work today.

So I relaxed by running 10 miles Sunday morning in mid-30's degree weather. I celebrated my survival with a couple of Torchy's Monk Special breakfast tacos:


Sunday afternoon I stopped by Pete's to have a homebrew and watch him and Glenn brew beer and smoke ribs. The IPA was excellent - but it kinda kicked my butt with the high alcohol content:



And lastly, here's a parting shot of Eloise - who Alison will be picking up tomorrow night. El has decided that she likes hanging out on my leather couch more than on her cat bed:

Holidaze

The holidays have crept up on me this year. Not really sure why. Maybe it's the hypnotic effect from all the ham I've been eating. I realized this morning that I still have presents to wrap and a long drive to make. So if you're expecting a card from me this year, know that it just might not happen - apologies in advance.

Also - I'm spending the week with a furry friend. Say hi to Eloise:



Btw - I bought the latest KGSR Broadcasts CD recently just for one song (different radio station, but I love the drums in this video):



Best wishes to all for the holidays. Hope everyone has some time off and gets to spend it with family and friends (or by yourself, if that's your preference).

Mother lode 6 (la grande finale)

Dell is closed this week, so I'm enjoying a nice holiday. Weird to be able to run around Town Lake during the week. The parking lots were empty, and so were the trails. It was a nice day - sunny and warm - and I managed to grind out another 10 miler. And what's this?! - sweating in late December?

Also not to be believed is me finishing all the ham my mom gave me. For my final installment, I chose to make ham, mushroom and spinach quiche. Maurie gave me the recipe, but I doctored it up a bit - e.g., I used lactose-free milk instead of regular milk. Although I'm not sure what's the point of that, since I put a layer of gouda on the bottom.

Here's the before:


And here's the after:



Speaking of Maurie, I went with her and Julia to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader last night. Oh, yeah, in 3D. I had read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when I was a kid, although I didn't really pay attention to the Christian symbolism back then. But it sure was hard to miss in the movie version.

Mother lode 5

Made a ham and gouda omelet (or omelette) for breakfast this morning:


Ran back to back 10 milers this weekend. Was thinking about running another one this morning, but I thought I'd give my old body a rest.

I spent most of Saturday looking for a present for my mom. The trip to the Armadillo Bazaar wasn't very fruitful, but I did get to hear Eliza Gilkyson play, which is always nice.


Afterward, I stopped off at Waterloo Records (if you haven't been to their web site recently, it's very web 2.0) to pick up the new R.E.M. Austin City Limits DVD. On the way back to the car, I noticed the tree lights next door at the 24 Diner. Pretty cool:


I've decided to spend the week purging stuff from my house and donating them to charities I like. So far it's been the Yellow Bike Project, Austin Children's Shelter, SafePlace and Next-to-New. I have a bunch of computer stuff to drop off at Goodwill Computer Works also.

Btw, I did finally locate that red, short sleeve, cashmere sweater my mom wanted - at, of all places, Lands' End online. I wonder why I even bother to shop at traditional brick and mortar stores.

Mother lode 3 and 4

I was craving bok choy last night (because I'm Asian). It took a couple of tries, but I finally found some baby bok choy at Central Market. I thought a stir fry with mushrooms and the ham I have would be good. I'm allergic to garlic, so I usually substitute ginger in its place when I cook:


Oddly, I did not have any rice in the house, so I cooked up some wheat capellini instead. I overcooked the greens, but overall, it wasn't too bad:


This morning I made ham and eggs before my 10 mile run around Town Lake:


Still have more ham left. And I'm running out of ideas as to what to make next.

Speaking of running out, I'm off to the Armadillo Bazaar to find something for a mother who has everything. Wish me luck.

Mother Lode 2

Still have plenty of ham left, so I made the easiest thing I know how to make today - ham mac and cheese:



Actually, this is the easiest thing I know how to make. The cheese sauce comes pre-made in a foil pack, so no measuring of any kind is required:


In case you missed the Patty Griffin / Shawn Colvin benefit show this past Sunday, here are some videos I found on youtube:

Mother lode

I opened my freezer door recently and discovered I still had a honey-baked ham my mom gave me from Thanksgiving. At least I know what I'll be having for dinner this week:

Roots

Just got back from seeing the Shawn Colvin / Patty Griffin show at the Paramount. The show was pretty amazing - just the 2 women, with 3 acoustic guitars between them, trading songs and banter throughout the evening.

Overall, it's been a pretty packed weekend (and week). Friday, I saw The Tourist at the Alamo. Despite the horrible reviews, I thought it was a charming film. Having Angelina Jolie saunter about in seductive evening wear doesn't hurt either.

Saturday, I did my usual 10 mile run around Town Lake. My legs felt dead, however, so it wasn't a very enjoyable run. Afterward, I checked out the Cherrywood Art Fair at Maplewood Elementary School. Lots of talented artist were in attendance. These were my favorites:



I also picked up some herbs as part of a fundraiser for the school:


Sunday morning, Pete and I rode the Spicewood Springs loop. Damn, it was cold! And windy. With my light windbreaker, I was definitely under-dressed for this ride (bonus post-ride helmet hair and glazed eye photo):


I thought about returning to the house to put on more layers, but decided that I would eventually warm up. Yeah, I did warm up - when I was back at the house, soaking in a long, hot shower. I was pretty useless the rest of the afternoon. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have gotten off the couch if I didn't have tickets to the show tonight.

Oh, and this was also my first week back at Dell. I'm working in the Global Solutions Lab, in a newly created group to develop and certify ISV partners. I don't have all the details of my job description - my boss told me to be flexible. He and the rest of my team will be out of the office until the new year, so I've been attending meetings and reading documentation to learn about the various partners I'll be working with.


And finally, check this out. The hill country peach pits I've been soaking for 3+ months have finally decided to grow some roots. And to think I came close to tossing these so many times over the past few months:

Truckin'

Ah, this past Friday was my last day at LibreDigital. I had an exit interview at 10:AM. Co-workers took me out to lunch at 11:30. Turned in my laptop and key card, and I was out the door by 2:00. The whole thing ended rather ignobly. My exit interviewer was a bit argumentative. Come on, if you ask me for my opinion as to why the development staff is frustrated, I'm going to give you my honest opinion. Just take the information and try to do good with it. It's my opinion - don't try to convince me it's not valid.

I got home from work around 2:30 and was just exhausted! I didn't realize how much stress I had been carrying around until I laid down on the couch. I was on that couch a good 3 hours before Maurie texted me and asked about seeing 127 Hours. At this point I thought I should at least get off the couch (if only to take a bio break), so I said sure.

Let me tell you, 127 Hours is an intense film. Not relaxing at all. Don't get me wrong, it's really good. And James Franco does an amazing job. It's just not very relaxing. And definitely not for the squeamish.

Looking to re-unwind, Saturday morning, I went out to Town Lake and ran 10 miles in my new shoes, the Asics Gel Nimbus v.12. Nice shoes. I tend to forget how much cush leaves a shoe after a year until I get a new pair. Nice flashy lime green too.


I wonder if the shoe industry will take a cue from the mattress manufacturers and point out that the weight of your shoe nearly doubles in 8 years due to sweat, dead skin, and dust mites. Yes, dust mites.

I've also decided my favorite bands to run to are the Allman Brothers, the Raconteurs, and the Flaming Stars. I really need to take the Cowboy Junkies and Mazzy Star off the iPod.

I started to call it an early night, but lying in bed I remembered that I needed to adjust the eccentric bottom bracket on the tandem for Sunday's ride. The chain kept falling off the last time the tandem was out. Very frustrating. Well, the task turned out to be a little more involved than I originally thought - requiring me to remove the crank arms and actually touch a greasy chain.

The Sunday morning tandem ride with Alison, Karen, and Glenn was a lot of fun. Cold and windy - I think it was below 50 degrees when we started (and I think minus 30 with the wind chill factor) - but a lot of fun. We headed East from Hyde Park along 51st Street to Springdale Rd. Springdale to East 12th. Up 12th to 11th. Then brunch at the Blue Dahlia Bistro. It was my first visit to the Blue Dahlia - the food was good, but the chocolate croissant was amazing.


We took Red River and Speedway back to Hyde Park. After a long, long, hot shower, I was pretty useless the rest of the day.

This last shot is just me doing the dishes sometime this afternoon. I though the blue dish in the white porcelain sink looked pretty cool.


First day back at Dell tomorrow. Looking forward to it!

Finally...

Finally took Linda and John's holiday card picture with their 3 dogs. Pretty funny watching Linda dressing the dogs only to see them running around the house shedding their costumes along the way. Getting them together for the group shot was like herding cats.


Finally finished off my Thanksgiving turkey. The stuffing I made, but don't be too impressed, it's Stove Top brand.

Thanks

Happy belated Thanksgiving to all. I am always thankful for the great family and friends I have. And I had a chance to spend some time with many of them these past few days.

Thanksgiving brunch started at 11:AM at the Woodlands country club, which meant leaving the house at 9:45AM. We arrived a bit early, so we took a few pics with the Zappas while waiting for Lina and Joe to arrive:





Lunch was nice and extensive. I have a hard time saying no to desserts, especially when they're on fire:


Afterward, we were gifted with many of Mrs. Zappa's homemade lemon cookies, mini pumpkin cheesecakes, and biscottis:


Later that afternoon, I stopped by June's place to see how her dinner preparations were coming along. In case you were wondering, yes, she really does live in a five story townhome:


June cooks once a year - Thanksgiving - and she goes all out. I believe in addition to the turkey, she was making focaccia bread, salmon mousse, potatoes and misc other side dishes:


Unfortunately, I wasn't able to stay for dinner, but I was there just long enough for one of her two skittish cats to make an appearance. I fed this one treats for a little while before she ran off:


My folks also had turkey and ham waiting at home. After a quick bite, I picked up Jeremy and met Ron at Champps sports bar to watch the UT / A&M game. As in years past, Jeremy and I like to place a friendly wager on the game - the loser picking up the winner's dinner tab. As expected, UT lost again. Jeremy - hope you enjoyed your apple crisp a-la-mode.

And as a departing pic, I've been walking Mylo a bit of late while his owner recovers from surgery. That's one happy dog:

Reunion

Ron made a quick visit to Austin this weekend. It gave him a chance to catch up with some friends he wouldn't normally get to see. Unfortunately, it also meant I missed the friend's pot luck I was invited to - my apologies, Dustin and EmSue.

Saturday, I got a chance to run the 10 Mile loop around Town Lake before Ron arrived. That night we had dinner and drinks with Kate before going bowling. Ron managed to charm the co-ed waitresses at Maudie's, but it was talking his way into free games with the male attendant at Dart Bowl that was really impressive.


Sunday morning, Ron, Pete and I rode the Spicewood Springs loop in the morning. It was overcast, humid, and windy. Very windy. Painfully windy. But we survived.


Afterward, Pete went home to brew and try out his new smoker, while Ron and I met up with AJ for burgers and a quick home tour.


It was good seeing these 2 together again. I don't think they've seen each other in 10 or 15 years.

November fortunes

Looks like it's going to be an interesting month. Is it a coincidence Ron is coming up from Houston tomorrow?

Mom's day

This weekend was my mom's birthday. Being the extraordinary son that I am, I made the short trek to Houston to help her celebrate. As customary, there was a lot of feasting, highlighted by Benihana's:


And McCormick & Schmick's:


While home, I also had a chance to pick some fruit from the family orange trees - although they look more like bushes, because the branches hang so low from the weight of the oranges. They (the oranges) have a lot of seeds, but they are very sweet:


This weekend was also Jeremy's b-day. Happy birthday!

Mylo

Maurie's out of town, so she asked if I could dog sit (in situ) a few days. Sure, why not? My family was visiting this weekend, so I gave them the run of my house while I took up shop at Mylo's.

Gave me a chance to recover from my bug and teach Mylo a few tricks.


Being food motivated, snatching popcorn in mid-air was easy.



Getting him to play fetch was a little harder. He's easily distracted - between his ball and his bone. Frequently, he tries to get both, but balancing on 2 legs while trying to grab another item with his remaining third is a bit tricky.



Btw, I saw Last Train Home and The Switch this weekend. Last Train Home is a pretty incredible documentary - I highly recommend it. The Switch - well, let's just say it's a lot better than The Back-up Plan. Actually, it was mildly entertaining. But go see Last Train Home (it's at the Regal Arbor) - I can't say enough good things about it. You won't regret it.

Carne mechada

"Hammered meat." That's what I feel like right now. I've been coughing non-stop for 48 hours. It's a dry cough that sounds horrible, and each one feels like I'm doing a stomach crunch. I am so sore. If I conservatively count 6 coughs a minute (that's a cough every 10 seconds), in the past 48 hours I've coughed 17,280 times. At this rate, I'm going to have six-pack abs by Sunday.


At least I might be able to get some sleep tonight. I've had this buzzing in the upstairs bedroom wall for months. A pest service came out to poke holes in the wall thinking the culprits might be bees or wasps. They didn't find anything, and I was left with a bunch of holes I still haven't patched. The buzzing is quite annoying - it's random, and not predictable - I liken it to water torture stories I've read about.


My workaround for this situation was to sleep downstairs in my guest bedroom. That worked fine until this week when my brother came to stay with me for a while. So back to the upstairs bedroom I went. I think I got about 3 hours of sleep the first night. The second night I started banging harder on the walls, thinking if there were insects in the walls, they would be annoyed by my pounding. All my pounding did nothing for the buzzing and just made my hand sore. Next, I opened the window to try banging from the outside. While beating on my outside siding, I happened to brush against a telephone line running from the telephone pole in front to an anchor point near where I suspected the buzzing to be.


Turns out the telephone line was vibrating. When I grabbed the line, I dampened the vibrations and the buzzing went away. Let go and the buzzing returned. And the wall anchor made things worse because it turned my wall into an amplifier - like when you were a kid and used 2 cups and string to simulate a telephone. Anyway, I called AT&T and had them remove the old line today. The buzzing is gone. Silence has been restored. And there was much rejoicing.