Vocabulary lesson

Learned a new phrase from my Latin teacher sister tonight. "Asian fail" - it's what her magnet student kids call any grade below a 95.

Btw, here's a better pic from last night's Lyle Lovett show, courtesy of austin360.com. Yes, it's the obligatory LA guest appearance. When in Austin...

Texas wants you anyway

A friend had an extra ticket to see Lyle Lovett tonight at the Bass concert hall, so she invited me along. He had his large band with him and just put on an awesome show . The acoustics in the Bass hall are amazing. And I think it's the first time I've seen him perform indoors. I remember his shows at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell in the Woodlands, at the pier in Seattle, and at the Backyard in Austin. So yeah, first time to see him indoors. Joining Lyle on stage were a couple of guest performers - Lance Armstrong and Kat Edmonson. Lance should stick to cycling, but Kat has a pretty unique voice.


Apologies for the fuzzy pic. It was taken with the Motorola Droid phone I upgraded to recently. Jury's still out on the phone, but I'm starting to get used to it.

Zappa cubed

My sister sent me this picture recently. Zappa backstage with Zappa who was in town to play Zappa. I understand it was a pretty good show.


I've been divesting a few bikes lately. Sold this week were my IF Ti Crown Jewel, Calfee Bamboo Road, and Specialized Boston Langster. I haven't ridden the CJ ever since my replacement Speedvagen arrived. The Calfee and Langster were meant to be sold. It's freed up some room in the house, but I still have quite a few more to go.




It doesn't help that my DeSalvo will be arriving soon. I bought it so long ago that I had forgotten about it until Mike emailed me last week to say I was next in the build queue. I asked for a fast touring, Randonneur-esque bike. Something I could put fenders, racks and 32c tires on. After a few email exchanges, this is the design he came up with (ah, BikeCad Pro, the big hammer in every framebuilder's toolbox):


Hmmm... Paris-Brest-Paris (or PBP for those in the know) would be fun. Closer to home, if you're interested in randonneuring, there's a Hill Country chapter you should check out. Their ride schedule also links to Bikely maps.

Back in the saddle

Started a contract job at Libre Digital this morning. I'm on a team that takes in news feeds and converts them into ePub format for display on digital readers like the Barnes and Noble Nook and the Sony Reader. Java programming with a lot of XML/XSLT. Fast paced. Should be an interesting gig.

While in Houston last weekend, I checked out a Japanese dollar store. Actually, it's a two dollar store. They sell stuff that would normally be sold at 100 yen shops in Japan, but since they have to import the goods to the states, they double the price. Still, it's pretty cool stuff - and much nicer packaging than the stuff you find at dollar stores here. Check it out - they have 3 aisles of office supplies (all neatly arranged), which may not sound cool, but trust me, it is.

70 is the new 60

Happy birthday mom!

Not the Wurst

My high school buddy Ron came up for a visit this weekend. I talked him into doing the Wurst Ride with Pete and me. Ron hadn't been on a bike since May, but he still managed to kick our collective asses. It really didn't matter, as it was a great day for a ride. Didn't start out that way, though. We rode from Hyde Park to the start in East Austin in a humid fog (duh - all fog is humid). It should have been an easy 7 miles, but somehow the group we rode with stretched it out to 10. And in a really roundabout way also - with a mile of that on some dirt path. With all the twists and turns, I was completely lost - but that's not surprising.




After the ride we celebrated with brats and beer (naturally). Alison was nice enough to come pick us up in New Braunfels for the return home. Dustin even made a guest appearance. I'm not sure I'm a Wurstfest kind of guy. An hour and a half was all I really needed to check the place out. The polka dancers in the main dance hall were my favorite takeaways.

Oh, hey - and speaking of East Austin, we tried out a new restaurant there recently - Justine's Brasserie. It reminded me of a French bistro. Very nice atmosphere, and the food wasn't bad either. It's a bit in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by industrial warehouses, but the place was packed on a Wednesday night. That's always a good sign.

Reunions

It's been a crazy week of catching up with old friends. Thursday, Talen flew in from Hawaii for a conference in town, which gave us an opportunity to catch up over drinks. We went to high school in Houston and through the Mech E program together at UT. We kind of lost touch after we graduated. He ended up going to med school, had a private practice in Tyler for 10 years, and finally moved his family to Maui about 5 years ago where he now works.

Friday through Sunday, I was in West Texas for a wedding in Marathon. Alison and I showed up late for the star gazing party, so when I met the groom, it was pretty dark outside. He was introduced to me as Robert, but as I walked away, I thought his voice sounded very familiar. Then I asked what Robert's last name was. Well, it turns out I lived across from him my sophomore year at UT. We were both at the Castilian. There were a few other people in town for the wedding from my Castilian days also. So it turned from an event where I thought I didn't know anyone to an event where I knew a number of people. Pretty cool.

Tthe Gage Hotel in Marathon

The happy couple

Castilian reunion circa 1983

The wedding was Saturday night, so we had a chance to bum around Marfa during the day. Alison caught up with friends in town, while I enjoyed the laid back surroundings. Marfa continues to be hip, trendy, and expensive. But I hear it's a good place to move to if you have a plan and penchant for hard work.





Leaving Marathon Sunday, we drove through Fort Davis and the McDonald observatory - on the highest road in Texas. As expected, the views were spectacular.