Our current political landscape really reminds me of a circus freak show. So when the opportunity came up for me to attend the Stewart/Colbert Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, I jumped. It helped that Pete was already in DC for a couple of meetings and was also looking to go. Throw in some cool fall weather and an Austin friend moving to DC, and you have the makings for a nice long weekend.
I arrived in DC Thursday afternoon just in time to meet Pete's colleagues for dinner and drinks. Dinner was at Tosca - a nice Italian place - I had the raviolis stuffed with roasted veal. Drinks were at Mr. Smith's - a Georgetown piano bar. I think "piano bar" says it all. And their beer list stinks.
Friday morning, I had a chance to explore Georgetown on my own. It was just a short walk across the Key Bridge (linking Arlington, VA and DC):
Their M Street would be analogues to our Sixth Street - restaurants, bars, shops. Apparently, cupcakes have arrived in Georgetown:
Lunch Friday was at Ray's Hell Burgers (a place Obama and Biden made quite a stir at recently). The burgers were good.
Afterward, we played tourist and did a lot of walking. Checked out the Georgetown canal system and walked around Healy Hall on campus:
Heading east, the obligatory White House picture:
Apparently, there are Chinese in DC. And they have a gate:
Saturday, we packed up and headed to Kammi's new place in the Eastern Market area of Capital Hill. Cool place. Julie had just driven up from Austin to DC with Kammi the night before. We dropped off our bags and headed to the rally, which was only a short walk away.
Ummm. The rally was huge. By CBS' professional estimate, there were 215000 attendees (compare that to the 87000 estimated for the Glenn Beck rally). We got there around 10:AM, and the place was already packed (picture below from CBS).
People were everywhere:
And there were a few bears too. This one is a little tired:
12:00 noon kicked off 3 hours of a very eclectic line up: Adam and Jamie from Mythbusters, Sam Waterston, Father Guido Sarducci. The Roots, John Legend, Kid Rock, Sheryl Crow, Mavis Staples, Jeff Tweedy, Tony Bennett, The O'Jays, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. And let's not forget Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) and Ozzy Osbourne doing a medley of Peace Train and Crazy train. You can watch the 3 hour video stream on CSPAN.
By the time the rally was over and we had walked back to Capital Hill, we had been on our feet for 8 hours. So naturally we waited in line for another hour to get seated for dinner. After dinner, we explored the Eastern Market area and had a couple more drinks:
Sunday morning's 8:15 flight back to Austin came way too early - the only payoff being we would get back to Austin around 10:30AM. So we got up at 5:00 to catch a 6:AM town car to Dulles. The plane took off without a hitch, but an hour and a half into the flight, the flight crew discovered a vibration they couldn't reconcile, so we returned to Dulles:
We then waited until noon for another plane to become available, and finally made it back to Austin around 3:30PM. It was a long day, but a great trip overall.
Btw, I heard that Eric placed 3rd in the individual TT at Gruene this past weekend, and Weston and Eric placed 2nd in the team TT. Congrats!
In case you're wondering, I've been working on a couple of product launches. Both are going live this week (hence the long nights and weekends).
First up is the new Barnes and Noble Nook Color. It's positioned in the space between the more basic black and white ebook readers and the full blown iPad. The reading experience for newspaper and magazines is especially improved, allowing the reader to easily navigate between PDF content and reflowed (ebook format) content.
Press so far from the WSJ and engadget has been positive.
The other product should launch today, but I can't say anything about it until it does.
This election season continues to amaze me. I'm not sure what she was doing, but is it ever really ok to step on someone's head? I guess if you felt your life was being threatened. Perhaps presenting a mock award can be considered life threatening in Kentucky.
Btw, there's an interesting article in the latest Rolling Stone on the Tea Party and Rand Paul. For those of you averse to printed media, here's a link.
I managed to get in both a run and a bike ride this weekend,so I'm feeling pretty good about myself.
Also this weekend, I wandered downtown to the Livestrong village with Dustin and Emily Sue Saturday. Even got a chance to say hi to Levi Leipheimer while I was there.
Afterward, it was a 7 mile run around Town Lake - btw, 7 miles only because I forgot where to turn off for the 5 mile loop. That said, I'm feeling inspired and am thinking of running the Austin Marathon again. My training has always been rather informal, but I do have a new game to check if I'm running the 2nd half of the course faster than the 1st. The idea, after all, is to finish strong. Since, I don't wear a watch, but I do run with a tiny iPod shuffle, my trick is to start my play list, run the first half of the course, then rewind to the beginning of my play list and try to finish the 2nd half of the course before I get to the same point in the play list. I'm not sure I'm explaining that too well, but it works for me.
Sunday, Pete, Glenn and I rode the Spicewood Springs loop. It was overcast and breezy. And except for the humidity, kind of a nice morning.
Later that night I stopped by Pete's to witness his and Glenn's latest brew session.
And to check out their new conical fermenter. It's a stainless steel marvel.
And thanks again Maria Elena for grilling the fajitas.
Early voting started today. FYI - If you normally do your early voting at the county offices on N. Airport, this year, the county has moved the voting machines to the building next door.
It's been a busy week. A couple of re-orgs at work. I was promoted for a week - then unpromoted. One of our 3 remaining developers quit. Ah, well... at least the weather has gotten cooler.
Friday was a nice night to celebrate the grand opening of Link, a place for co-working. If you work from home and need a quiet, well-equipped place to work, this may be perfect for you.
Saturday morning, I checked out the Texas Custom Bike Show at the Music Hall. I guess I was a little early, because not all the lights had been turned on.
James from Alchemy was there with a full array of custom bikes.
However, the coolest thing I saw may have been the carbon fiber travel bike, with a frame that breaks apart with carbon couplers.
After a quick tour of the other exhibits, I met up with friends at Inks Lake for a quick camping trip. Couldn't beat the weather - sunny days and cool nights. And lots of dogs (not all pictured - but trust me).
Had a really nice bike ride yesterday. Dustin even rode in from Steiner to join us. It was just a gorgeous day.
We parted ways in Manor, with Dustin heading back to Steiner while Pete and I continued on to the Aztec Taquería in Elgin for our traditional breakfast tacos. Happy to see my mileage edging up slightly every week. 45 miles last Saturday, 51 miles this Saturday. More importantly, I remembered my water bottles this time, so I wasn't cramping the last 10 miles of the trip - making for a much more enjoyable time.
Sunday, I was given a wristband for ACL, but I decided it was too much trouble to go for just a couple of shows. The line-up this year really sucked. Hopefully, Pete got more use out of it.
Instead, I went bowling at Highland Lanes. It doesn't have quit the charm of Dart Bowl, but it'll do for a lazy Sunday afternoon. AJ kicked my ass, but he's on a bowling league, and this was my first time to bowl in at least 3 years. Still, I did break 100 in each of the 3 games. Woohoo!
I can be stubbornly cheap (as evidenced by all the half full Diet Pepsi cans in my fridge). That's why I spent the better part of Sunday afternoon searching my house for a $3 flapper to fix my leaking guest toilet. I've purchased a number of flush repair kits over the years, and know I have a few unused flappers somewhere. Damn if I know where they are now.
Anyway, a trip to Home Depot this evening, and I come home with this:
It's suppose to make my 600 gallon per flush toilet environmentally friendly. I figure the $100 I'll save per year (as stated on the box) will more than pay for the $18.00 device. Although, my water bill is usually only $8.50 a month, so my water will be practically free now. Nice.
Btw, the device I purchased should not be confused with this device endorsed by Austin Powers:
Hey Eric - this is what you missed while you were training in New Braunfels:
Your son knocked on my front door while I was drinking my coffee this morning. Apparently, Lilly flew the coop and landed in a tree down the street. She was hugging a branch 20 feet off the ground.
After trying to call her down for a good 15 minutes, we came up with the following Rube Goldberg plan.
Drive the minivan under the tree, put a board across the roof to provide support (blanket to protect the paint), place a ladder on top of board, climb on top of the ladder, pull a nearby branch, the branch Lily is on also moves closer (transitive property of tree branches), grab the bird, climb down from the roof. Have child close by with a Super Soaker to spray bird in case bird flies off again.
Thus far, my efforts to have my back yard declared a wildlife preserve have met with little success. Thankfully, Hyde Park does not have an HOA. If it did, I don't think this would make them very happy:
Unlike my front yard, I rarely receive complements on my back yard. Guess it was time to do something about it.
So far the weekend has just been gorgeous. Yesterday was a great day for a bike ride. Getting to see Cedar Park was just an added bonus.
Oh, and speaking of riding, I saw the following segment (pun intended) on how bike chains are made recently. Makes me wonder how chains were made before companies had million dollar machines to do most of the work.
WHOA - did the narrator in the video just refer to my neighborhood as 'the hood'? - damn, those Canadians are progressive. And urban.
