Jill started the 1st leg of the 2nd half of her Lutheran Author Tour Saturday. The first leg is all in Iowa. Her first stop is at Luther College in Decorah. Her trip started with a morning flight out of Austin to Minneapolis-St.Paul, followed by a three hour bus ride, then an one hour drive by car - all to get just to the school:
She had a reading Sunday, lectured in a class today, and will speak at another class tomorrow. Then she's off to Des Moines on Wednesday, then Sioux Falls, then Forest City, then back home.
Saturday afternoon, Pete and I went to the Texas Craft Brewers Festival at Fiesta Gardens. We sampled a lot of beers, most with an alcohol content 2 or 3 times that of Bud Light (most people's reference point). I found Austin Beerworks to be the most intriguing brewer - mostly because they can their beer (for freshness, but they taste good also):
Later that night I had dinner with Mollie at Buenos Aires Café (an Argentinian place in the Hill Country Galleria). It was a nice night to sit outside and text people:
Afterward, we checked out the Guy Forsyth show at Poodies Hilltop Roadhouse in Spicewood. Poodies is an interesting place. It's definitely not Threadgills.
Sunday was a bit more relaxed. I took Alison out to the Hyde Park Grill for a belated birthday dinner:
Alison was a little upset at me because my previous blog entry seemed to imply that Rick Perry was for the death penalty because he is faith based. However, the fact is, most faith-based organizations are opposed to the death penalty. Actually, what I meant to say was that Rick Perry's forensic science is faith-based, and not science based. The fact that he positions himself personally as a religious man and hides behind his faith is topic for a whole other discussion.
Been trying to clean out the freezer recently. In my rush to leave town on vacation, I stuffed everything from the fridge section into the freezer section. I guess I hadn't looked in there since I got back. And now I realize there's no room for anything else - like ice cream. Anyway, had leftover mac and cheese (from Jill) with pulled chicken (from Jill's b-day party - Zocalo) and beans (from the garden) the other day. It wasn't bad:
Speaking of which, while I was picking beans, I noticed that I have a nasty aphid problem in the back garden. That and some fungus has been wreaking havoc with my pumpkins and gherkins (the beans seem unaffected). I pulled up a bunch of both to stop the spread of the bugs and fungus. Hmmm... I may have been a little overzealous in my eradication:
Oh, well. This is what I have left - a couple of softball sized pumpkins and an over-sized gherkin, along with a bunch of smaller ones:
A bright spot in all this is that I discovered I had basil plants buried under all those broad leaves:
Just finished another late night call with Asia (this time - Singapore, China, and India). Earlier in the evening, I went to a preview screening of Incendiary: The Willingham Case at the Violet Crown Cinema. If you're not familiar with the case, it's about 3 girls that died in a Corsicana, TX house fire and their father who was tried and executed for their arson murders. I went with Maurie, who was invited by the filmmakers to answer death penalty questions after the showing. The filmmakers were there also.
The film is interesting because it's a death penalty case and it occurred in Texas. But it's more interesting because it focuses on the science of the case - specifically, the science of arson investigations and how it's evolved over the past couple of decades from folklore to a true science. I may not practice engineering all the time, but I am still a big fan of the scientific method. Apparently, Rick Perry is more faith-based. And apparently, I am not a fan of Rick Perry.
Documentaries tend to not stick around theaters long, so if you're interested, I'd recommend you check this one out soon.
I'm waiting on an 11:PM conference call with India, so I thought I'd update my blog.
Mollie and I saw Contagion at the Alamo Village this past Saturday. Good, escapist film. Also good were the ice cream shakes we ordered. She got the mocha, and I got the balsamic strawberry. I highly recommend both:
Last night I got a call from Jeremy. He was in town from Plano for a work presentation. Maurie also called to see about getting a drink - she had just driven back from Huntsville, where she was suppose to witness her client's execution (the Supreme Court stayed the execution with 2 and a half hours to go):
We ended up at the Hyde Park Grill. It's a good place for a drink (her), vegetarian food (him), and some real food (me).
Jill surprised me with a gift this weekend. She had received advanced copies of The Best American Poetry 2011 from the publisher, Scribner (didn't they used to be called Charles Scribner's Sons?), and kindly gave me a copy. Jill has a poem in this year's anthology. She was also featured in the 2010 anthology. Pretty cool:
Got down to Town Lake a little earlier this morning to beat out the ACL traffic. Not a bad day for the 7 mile loop, mostly because I managed to stay vertical the whole way.
Speaking of ACL, I'm not going to the festival this year. However, Mollie had tickets to last night's Austin City Limits Live taping of The Head and the Heart - and was nice enough to invite me along:
The show was great - and it was my first time in the new ACL Live space at the W:
Afterward, we had dinner at Trace, and then went for a walk around downtown to do some people-watching. It was a good night for hipsters and tall heels (not together - usually).
Just got back from a vacation to Montréal. Thanks Eric for picking us up from the airport; and Maurie for watering my plants while I was gone.
It was nice to escape the heat a little (although, it wasn't as cool in Montréal as we had hoped). We mostly ate (really well), drank many cups of espresso (I missed my Diet Pepsi), and walked a bunch (about 8 to 10 miles a day), but we did get to see some great sites, take in some history, see a bike race, and visit some bike shops (what I do on most of my vacations).
I was surprised at how little English was used on public signage. However, most service people spoke English (with a quaint French Canadian accent) - and for those who didn't, Jill has a degree in French, so she was able to translate for me.
We flew on miles and stayed at the Hyatt in downtown Montréal (my first time using Priceline to bid on hotel rooms - thanks sis for the tips), so getting there and staying there was pretty inexpensive. Food, on the other hand, was pretty pricey - I like to complain to Jill about the $5 bowl of rice and the $70 sandwich lunch. Although, we did eat simply on many occasions, so it all balanced out.
Through the magic of back-dating, I've added blog entries in chronological order (going backwards).
We had a 2:10PM flight back to Austin Wednesday afternoon, so we had time to wake up, have some breakfast, and pack before getting to the airport:
The flight to Newark was uneventful:
Although, we did have a 3 hour layover once we got to Newark. So we spent it in the Continental lounge drinking and eating trail mix and fruit (and by fruit - I mean the limes in our drinks):
The flight from NJ to Austin was a bit bumpy. It was a full flight, and we sat in the last row by the restroom (or toilet, in French), so the flight felt even bumpier. We made it back safe and sound, so no complaints - just some cool experiences and memories. And it was good to find out that we travel well together.
So we celebrated by visiting more bike shops and walking a bunch.
This multi-level arrangement is a cool use of a small space - here I am on the 2nd floor (this, btw, was the local Argon 18 dealer in town - pretty fancy Canadian bikes):
Belle and Mulan appear to be in a lover's spat on this cake top:
Jill thought the sign above me was funny (click on the picture to enlarge if necessary):
Our walk culminated with a lunch of smoked meat (what we call brisket) at Schwartz's Hebrew deli. I have to admit, their meat was delicious. I even ordered a sandwich to go for a snack later:
In the evening, it was pouring down rain, so we took a cab to Toqué for dinner:
Toqué is a really nice place, with a 60's mod feel to the place. Again, I had a tasting menu (8 courses), and Jill had yet another salad (with bites from my plate):
After the high of the bike race, Monday morning started off lazily. We checked the map for Olive Et Gourmando (a bakery/sandwich shop in Old Montréal):
and hung around the hotel a bit (these chairs were next to the purple felt pool table in the bar/restaurant area):
The Palais des congrès (convention centre), with its multi-colored glass facade, is also pretty cool:
Sadly, the bakery we were looking for was closed on Mondays, so we had lunch across the street from it, in a little French bistro called Marché de la Villete. The food was traditional French fare and was excellent:
On our way out of Old Montréal, we passed these gals on the corner:
And this poster:
We spent the day visiting markets and drinking espressos. And in the evening, took a stroll in the rain to Bonaparte for dinner:
Bonaparte is a very traditional French restaurant, with waiters in formal attire and antique furnishings. I had one of their tasting menus, which was a nice way to sample their food. Jill, being the vegan eater, had a salad.
Our walk back to the hotel was very Midnight in Paris-y. With some silliness thrown in for good measure:
