100% organic, shade-grown, fair-trade, and anti-biotic free.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
science is never wrong
leaving austin after five great days for the annual gathering with the crew. lots of mom jokes, lots of bbq, lots of tex mex, and lots of beer. am sitting at the gate, waiting for my flight to reno. debating whether or not i can justify a to-go order of salt lick (among the best bbq places).
one of the major highlights was continuing our tradition of finding one really, really shitty movie that is so bad it is good.
the chief brought absolute zero, courtesy his in-laws. featuring the dude from lawn mower man, it is an instant classic, if for nothing else, the line, "science is never wrong."read the imbd summary here. basically, a cheap knock off of 'the day after tomorrow' with D-list actors and special effects lifted from a video game.
wikipedia has some pretty cool information about the real science of absolute zero here.
even though it rained a lot, we did a lot of stuff. ok, we went out to eat at a lot of places. and hit some cool bars, notably club deville and the austin hotel. all kinds of great eats, but i'm too tired right now to come up with all of the names.
next year will be at the wintermute house. the trip will feature three munchkins. one was a handful (and a lovable handful, at that) this year. will be interesting.
dr wintermute flew out yesterday. she has her last day at crazy town today, and then she's finishing the apt close out this afternoon. staying with momma cass and the fam the rest of the week. i arrive in soflo late friday night, and then we are DC-bound.
am at bloodninja's place. he and his baby's momma headed off to work. moe is sleeping. so it's just me and the dog, nathan.
who is a racist.
according to bloodninja, the dog does not like people of color. he goes nuts.
what makes this even funnier is that the dog is black.
it reminds of a great dave chappelle skit, where a blind guy who doesn't realize that he is black is a white supremacist. here's the clip, courtesy google video.
well, today is just about a year to the day that we moved to soflo. dr. wintermute, the catalog and i celebrated by going to southport, a great happy hour spot on the water.
tomorrow is my last full day here. i leave for a 10 days of travel (mixed in with the big weekend in austin) on wed. i arrive late two friday's from now, and then dr. w and i hit the road for our new home.
this weekend in austin will be awesome.
spent this weekend doing two things:
reading harry potter (yup, we waited in line at barnes & noble at midnight on friday)
hanging out with momma cass in her home town. this included throwing her a surprise baby shower.
the last book is so good! dr. w read it aloud (our very own book on tape) while i drove the 3 hours each way to arcadia and back.
leaving nashville in a few moments, figured i'd blog a bit from the gate. had a nice little in / out, leaving soflo early this morning and coming back this evening. a bit tired, as we had a big night out. well, for a weeknight.
hit skyline chili and then saw the order of the phoenix in 3D imax, and then farewell drinks with kiki.
potter was pretty sweet, and definitely the best in the series so far. finally, the movie (almost) matched the darkness of the book. good job on playing up harry's attachment to sirius, connection with voldemort, and feelings of loneliness and alienation. on the downside, not much in the way of the actual order of the phoenix, the back and forth between harry and dumbledore, or the antagonism between snape and sirius. great job on casting luna. and ron finally stopped actually like an idiot.
headed up to arcadia this weekend to hang w/ momma cass, her dude, and the general lee. should be fun.
let the countdown begin. entering the homestretch in soflo. one room mate is gone. the catalog is next. dr. w and i will have the place to ourselves for the last week. of course, at this point we're sleeping on the floor, as we have re-opened akhbar's fine furniture (the soflo outlet). we sold our bed within 24 hours of posting it on craig's list. got enough of our money back that we have effectively been renting a bed for $11 a month. what a deal! now, the desk and tv stand have got to go. dr. w did a great job.
half way through a big month. writing from the nati, where i'm here to drop off my car (dr. w and i are going down to one car once we get to maryland) to store at my parents' place on an indefinite basis. lots of travel this month. eleven states. started july 1st in maryland. then headed to soflo for a week. then flew to california last monday, and then in oregon for the rest of last week. passed through salt lake (ok, so maybe i shouldn't count connecting flights) to georgia. spent the weekend in atlanta for the beav's baby shower and to pick up my car. drove up to ohio this morning. have a meeting in kentucky tomorrow, and then fly to missouri for some time in our office there. back to soflo tuesday night. thursday is a up and back trip to nashville. a week in soflo, then a day in georgia, then head to texas for a meeting and then staying the weekend for the annual enemy of my enemy is my friend gathering (featuring bloodninja, mrs. bloodninja, chief and chief chick, j-watt, joe (but no moe), momma cass, her dude, their kiddo, and of course, dr. w). should be a blast, as always. there until tuesday, then head to nevada for our annual company management retreat. finally, close out the month and fly back to soflo on the first friday of august. the next day dr. w and i drive to our new home!
whew.
much more exciting news is the last harry potter book. predictions (based on my opinions and readings of non-spoiler mugglenet boards):
a couple of weekends ago i got to spend my last full week in atl hanging with moe at an 80s party (that he co-hosted). we went as appetite for destruction-era axl and slash. we rocked it, and i'm proud to say that we won the best costume contest. great crew too--shih dogg rolled out of the wood works, tucci and his wife, plus big ben from the platypi (how's that for old school) and joe (no bama boy, sadly).
rocking guns and roses was moe's idea, and we pulled it off for about $20 each, including a clutch top hat, two great wigs, and a cardboard guitar traced off a genuine les paul (what slash, and coincidentally, I play at home).
did i mention that the eurythmics opened for us?
sweet dreams indeed.
do you know where you are?
note the sweet wristband. it helps me rock mind bending guitar solos.
when i left, axl was talking to this band-aid from row 10.
i'm moved in to the new chez wintermute. spent the weekend painting one of the rooms; thanks to having the chief and chief chick help us, dr. w and i finished it in about two hours. then i mowed the lawn for the first time. the whole thing felt a bit like the scene in old school where the students are trying to get will ferrell to bring out frank the tank, and he tries to decline, saying he has a big weekend, and that the next day may include a stop at the home depot. i felt very suburban. i like our place, but the hood seems a bit too quiet. our neighbors are super-friendly (almost to the point of weirding dr. w out).
also spent some time in part of the local downtown area. there's several square blocks that are known in civic engineering / urban planning circles as 'planned development.' i get it, it beats sprawl and strip malls, but it just feels so manufactured. every single store is a name brand. there's chipotle! oh, and look, cold stone for dessert!
even the 'big lawn' is artificial turf.
the chief started calling it awesome town, in homage to a great andy samburg sketch from the lonely island.
the movers just left. almost everything made it, saves four metals plates essential for assembling our bed. of all things. fukstix. our box spring almost didn't quite, as well. the movers actually stopped after trying for 20 minutes, shaking their head and saying it couldn't be done. i took this as a personal challenge. after 40 more minutes of turning the box spring every angle it could go (and even surveying the windows and the attic for alternate routes), we got it up here. albeit, the box spring is a bit bent in places.
