Update- Beach Trip Edition

So on Thursday morning Amy and I headed out for Port Aransas on a beach trip with a bunch of friends.  I've been going on this trip on and off again for roughly ten years with various configurations of this group of folks.  Just for the purposes of documenting who was along, I think we had:  Mandy, Vicki, Ellie, Donna Rene, Kim, Sigmund, Miles, Alicia, Collin, Clayton, Amy, Rami, Wilson, and Allison (who I met for the first time on this trip).
This was Amy's first trip with the gang, and her first trip to Port A.  She fit right in.  We had a really nice trip.  We rented a couple of houses, and we had about 13 adults and 3 kiddos in our group.  It was the first time I'd been on one of these trips with kids.  It was a little different, but a lot of fun!

It's great to have a group of friends that you can do stuff like this with. The beach trip definitely builds a sense of community.

I'm still sort of a little tired following our adventure, so maybe I'll just sort of let my pictures speak for me on this post.  I had a really nice time.  It was good to hang out with everyone, the beach itself was very relaxing, and it was a good trip with Amy down to the Texas coast!

Yay beach!

(Our beach campsite.  It grew bigger over time,
but this gives you the idea)



(late night poolside wackiness)

(Andy does his impression of
a barnacle)

(a walk at sunset)

Update

Hey, guys!  I hope everyone had a nice week and weekend.

We've been a little busy as we're rolling into summer.

Last week we went out for dinner with a friend that Amy met while at the iSchool, Stephen, and his ladyfriend, Stephanie.  We had a really nice time!  It was good to catch up with Stephen and meet Stephanie.  We ate some good Mexican food, and I learned that I really need to see a documentary called The Short Game about hyper competitive 7 year old golfers.  We really enjoyed dinner with them.

Let's see... Thursday night I worked late at vet court.

(I will totally throw a fit if they
mess up the Superman theme.)

On Friday night Ryan, Amy, and I went to a free summer pops concert at Zilker Park that was put on by the Austin Civic Orchestra.  The weather turned out to be remarkably pleasant for a Texas evening in June (much better than I epxected).  The music mostly consisted of soundtracks (Star Trek, Mission Impossible, Cats, Superman, Titanic, Grease, Star Wars, etc.).  People brought blankets and babies and dogs, and we sat out under the trees with our drinks and listened to music while the sun went down.  It was a very nice evening.  My friend Laura plays clarinet for the orchestra, and it's always fun to see her perform (but we go because the music is good- frankly, Laura is my homegirl and all, but if the music was bad we wouldn't have made it out to see her three times in the last year).

So that was Friday night.  It was nice!

(Hops & Grain with Luckey
 and Jason - and Jessie's mouth and nose)

On Saturday afternoon I went to a beer tasting at the Hops & Grain brewery with friends Jason and Jessie and a few of their friends (who I met for the first time, but who seemed very nice).  We tasted various beers and hung out in the taproom and gawked at the big beer tanks.  It was a fun event.  Hops & Grain makes some tasty beer.  After the beer tasting I went shopping with Amy and worked out.  In the evening we went over to Jason's house for a birthday party.  It was a lot of fun.  There was food and beer and good company.  Several of Amy's friends from work made it out.  We stayed for quite a while.  Once again, it was a nice evening with good weather, so we just sat on the back patio and talked.

Sunday we got up and ran some errands.  We went up north to pick up a suit that I ordered a couple of weeks ago.  We ended up calling the police because some clown had locked their dog in a car and left it in the parking lot in 90 something degree weather.  Second time I've already made that sort of call this summer.  Grrrrr....  Dogs die in hot cars.  We live in Texas.  People are stupid.
Friday night my folks came over for dinner.  It was a very nice evening.  Amy made chilaquiles, and Mom brought a salad.  It was good to have a chance to hang out with them and catch up a bit.
Nice night.

And that was about it!
I hope everyone else had a nice one!

Showers in the Granger Building

I wasn't going to write about this because I didn't think anyone would care, but how there's been a very small buzz about it in the local media, so I feel I'd be remiss if I didn't document this turn of events...

I think I may have mentioned this once before, but I've been involved in this sort of organized push among the employees in my building to get showers added to the building during an ongoing remodel.  The idea kinda started with Amy.  She has showers in her office building at work, and she and her coworkers are in a crossfit program during lunch where they work out every day (it's sorta like aerobics combined with strength training).  Some of her coworkers also bike to work.
This got me thinking because there are a number of people in my office who exercise during lunch and others who bike to work.  There are also many people who would like to do these things but who are afraid of to get sweaty and have to be stinky all day.
So we started a sort of gentle push to get showers.  I'm definitely not the only one who supports the showers, but I sort of ended up being the de facto "annoyer in chief", sending emails to members of the Travis County Commissioners Court and gathering signatures on a support list (the word "petition" sounds too antagonistic, you see).
Well, the whole thing came to a vote yesterday in commissioner's court (the body which decides how Travis county money will be spent).  The night before the vote, the local news ran a weird story about the issue.  If you look closely when they show the petition, you might might see my name at the top of the list (and a bunch of my friends right after my name).

http://www.keyetv.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/could-showers-help-solve-travis-county-traffic-health-issues-9005.shtml

Not sure how long they'll keep that story on their site.

KLBJ News Radio also ran a story about the showers.

http://www.newsradioklbj.com/News/story.aspx?ID=1971983

Anyway, there was a bit of drama in the 11th hour of the shower thing as Gerald Daugherty- a nice guy, but one of our more conservative commissioners- voiced some objection, saying that he didn't really feel that it was the role of government to provide these kinds of services to its employees.  Since the State of Texas, one of the most conservative governing bodies in the country, is providing these services to its employees in the Capitol Complex right down the street, I didn't have too much sympathy for that argument.  I like Daugherty and all, but we wanted our showers!

In the end, we rallied some shower supporters who went to commissioner's court.  Then a week later my boss, David Escamilla (our County Attorney) showed up at commissioner's court and went to bat for the idea.  He not only advocated for the showers, but kicked in money from the County Attorney budget that covered a pretty good sized chunk of the project.  This sort of caught us off guard (we had done this as sort of a grass roots thing, mostly), but it was really cool of him and made us all feel supported by the office.  That's a good feeling.
In the end, even Commissioner Daugherty voted for the showers and they were easily approved.

So now we'll be getting showers!  Eventually.  And I'll have to start putting my money where my mouth is and riding my bike to work.  Or exercising at lunch.

I've made a terrible mistake.  ;-)  

Update

Howdy!  It's June!  Summer! 
I really like summer.  It's hot, but it's relaxed.  And it's fun.  I dig it.

So last Monday was the end of the regular session for Amy.  Her schedule is a little more normal now, so we're getting into a bit more of a regular routine.
On Tuesday night we joined Ryan, Susan, and Juan for Enter the Dragon at the Alamo Ritz.  For those who enjoy kung fu action movies, Enter the Dragon is a classic.  The characters have enough backstory to make them more interesting than simple punching bags, and the plot contains both some themes that are fairly classic in martial arts films (e.g., the shaolin temple and the wizened master) as well as some elements that make the movie feel more firmly placed in a particular place and time (e.g., Jim Kelly's character, Williams, seems to have a bit of a black power sort of vibe going on, and quickly flees to Hong Kong after getting into a fight with some racist cops; Roper and Williams seem to be war buddies, having both served in Vietnam).
At any rate, Enter the Dragon is a cool movie.  Bruce Lee emanates intense ferocity on screen, and John Saxon and Jim Kelly, while not quite as impressive as martial artists, lend a vibe to the film that gives it a lot more personality than your typical kung fu flick.

What else?

(that's right, Amy, I posted this!
Barton Springs 4 evah!)

The weekend was good.  We went to Barton Springs for the first time this season.  Although I didn't get in the water as quickly as Amy "Penguin" Davis, I think I managed to get into the cold water fairly quickly for a first dip of the year.  We had a nice combination of summer breeze, clouds, sun, and crazy neo hippies with didgeridoos and hula hoops.
The weekend also involved water melon, bicycle riding, and dog walking.
We went out for breakfast omlettes one morning at Magnolia.  Good food and fun to go out for breakfast.

(there is more sky in Elgin)

(it's like a nerdier version of
Burning Man!)

We went to a sine die party (the fancy name for the last day of session) for Amy's office out in Elgin at a house that had horses, a golf cart, karaoke, horseshoes (the game- not equine footwear), and a motorbike.  There was barbecue and beer and friendly folks.  We had a really nice time.  At some point people busted out some fireworks.  Mildly perilous and majorly fun.
I had band practice, but with only Frank and Jim in attendance.  To mix things up even more, I played acoustic guitar and mandolin.  Frank played his new amp.  We struggled a bit to find our footing, but we had some moments that sounded really good.  Given a little more time and practice in that sort of configuration I think we could do pretty well.

Amy made some excellent food over the weekend.  We had a really good salmon dish that's baked in some sort of asian bread crumbs (panko?) and involves mustard.  Very, very good.  She also made some blackberry bars that we ate with frozen yogurt.  They were also ridiculously good.  She had asked if I wanted any sort of baked fruit thing, and I threw blackberry cobbler out there just to see if she would go for it, and then she made these blackberry bars and they were better than cobbler. In all the right places, sweet and tart and crunchy and soft.  For real.  She could have a restaurant. 

We've also been watching Prime Suspect on Netflix.  Many of you may already know about it, but for those who don't, it's a British show about homocide detectives in the early 90's.  It stars Helen Mirren as Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison. 
I like the show.  Tennison isn't a perfect human being- her drive to achieve professional success often leads to deficiencies in other aspects of her personal life- but she's good at her job and determined to succeed in an environment that's wrought with sexism and bias.  Good acting and good writing.  I'm sure we'll watch more.

Annnd.... that's about it.
It was a nice, relaxing weekend.
Following the legislative session, it was a nice change of pace for Amy, and it was really nice to just have a chance for both of us to relax a bit and hang out.

Take care!

Memorial Day Weekend

So we had a three day weekend.  It wasn't bad, but it was kind of weird.  Amy had to work a lot.  It was the end of the Texas legislative session, so she was putting in long hours manning the fort at Lege Council while the legislators wrapped up most of their bills. 
On Friday night I don't think I did a whole lot.  Amy got off work late.  I really can't remember what I did, so it must have been extremely exciting.
On Saturday I went over to my brother's house to help he and my dad move some bookshelves upstairs in his house.  We moved furniture, went to the hardware store, and went out to eat with Mom and Jamie.  It was nice to see everyone and hang out.  Saturday I also did some grocery shopping and laundry and whatnot.  Amy came home for dinner, but then hag to go back in to work until late at night.
On Sunday I went to see Iron Man 3.  It was pretty good.  Not exactly groundbreaking or anything, but entertaining.  Tony Stark was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder following the alien attack on New York from The Avengers movie.  It was kind of an interesting twist to throw such a cold splash of reality into the middle of a superhero action adventure, but they didn't do much with it.  Our protagonist just sort of jokes about his panic attacks and then shrugs them off.  That particular plotline made me think that maybe superhero movies should just avoid bummer plotlines that can't easily be resolved in two hours.  It also made me realize that some of the good TV shows lately have sort of upped the ante in terms of developing nuanced characters.  Of course, TV shows have the luxury of time, telling a story across multiple episodes.
But I thought Iron Man 3 was pretty good.  I'm not sure it's going to work its way into my top 5 list, but it was a good, solid summer popcorn flick.

Sunday night we ate Thai food after Amy got home, and then I played quiet guitar music while Amy fell asleep reading on the sofa.
Monday, Memorial Day, was the last day of session, otherwise known as sine die.  It was a work day for Amy.  I got up in the morning and went on a pretty long bike ride, including a stop at Amy's office to see her for a few minutes while she took a break.  In the afternoon I went to a Memorial Day pool party at Judge Denton's house.  It was nice.  He had barbecue, and a number of people from the courthouse, including the entire staff of the veterans court, were in attendance.
After the party I headed downtown where I met up with Amy and her coworkers.  They were at the Dog and Duck, drinking a beer or two and celebrating the end of the session.
We went home and had dinner and the weekend was over. 
It sort of went by in a blur.

Hope everyone else had a nice weekend!
Congrats to Amy on finishing up her first regular legislative session!  (there's a special session already underway, but we're hoping the hours will be better)

Welcome to summer 2013...

Update; Bike to Work Day; Viva Streets Austin

Hi!  Hope everyone is doing okay!  It's been getting pretty warm here in Austin.  A few people complain about the heat, but I really like summer, so I don't mind it so much.  Plus, I've been living in Texas since about 2nd grade, and at some point I decided that the ability to just sort of deal with the heat is part of what sets Texans apart.  I greet the heat each summer like the return of an old, surly friend.  Sometimes he can be agreeable (e.g., at Barton Springs or when sitting in the backyard on a breezy summer night), but sometimes he can be a pain in the butt (e.g., certain years of ACL Fest and walking around downtwon on a workday in my suit).

The weekend was fairly decent.

On Friday it was Bike to Work Day here in Austin.  It's part of a national Bike Month, and it promotes exercise, green energy transportation, and fun.  At my office I've been sort of trying to informally organize a bit of an effort to have some showers installed in our building now that they're doing renovations.  Bike to Work Day seemed like one great way to show people that it's entirely possible to use bikes to commute (there was some question about whether anyone would actually do this, even if they got us our showers).

(Hello!  I'm the weird guy
who's been slowing down traffic!)

Anyway, BTW Day involved various "hubs" set up around the city that had food, drinks, music, and some small giveaway promotional items (I got a cloth bag that says "Bike to Work Day" on it).  On the way home they had more of the same, plus some beer giveaways for bike happy hour.
I rode in Friday morning, and as I was passing a church in my neighborhood on Bannister, I noticed a group of cyclists eating breakfast tacos and getting ready for a group ride.  They waved me over and invited me to ride into downtwon with their group.  I've never done a group ride before, but they had breakfast tacos and orange juice, so, warily, I joined them.
It was fun!  We rode into downtown and over to city hall where they had more juice and food and free stuff for giveaways.  I met a couple of nice people and got some tips on how the whole group ride thing works (it involves a bit more in terms of hand signals and hollering and riding two by two).
Riding to work was fun.  It would be nice to have a shower in the building.  I cleaned up in the bathroom, and it worked okay, but a shower would have helped.
Friday afternoon I rode home from work.  Also fun.  I rode with a friend from work to hit afternoon hubs at Mellow Johnny's and Bibcycle Sport Shop.  Had some free beer at each place and listened to a little bit of live music.  I ran into one of the people from my morning ride group at Bicycle Sport Shop in the afternoon.

Friday night Amy got off work kind of late.  I think we went out to eat.  I can't really remember.

Saturday we got up and I went to the grocery store, and Amy went to work.  I got home and exercised and made a chicken tomatillo dish in the crockpot.  It came out pretty well.  First time I ever used a food processor.  In the afternoon I went suit shopping with my dad.  I bought a suit, and we stopped off afterward and had a beer.  By the time I got home, Amy was home.  Saturday night we just sort of hung out and ate dinner and relaxed.  It was nice.
On Sunday we went out to breakfast at Central Market.  We ran a couple of errands.

(why have you brought me here,
and what is happening?)

After that we rode downtown on our bikes to check out Viva Streets Austin.  It was fun to see people out and about, but the event itself was kind of weird.  As I told Amy, it felt a little like a festival in search of an identity.  There were some vendors (mostly just kind of advertising booths, really- not people selling food or art or anything), and there were a few performers (not very many), but there didn't seem to be much of a theme.  It was advertised as a street festival, but there just wasn't much to it.  Mostly just people wandering around in the street.  I'm not upset that I went, but I wouldn't really bust my butt to make it down there again next year.
All in all, though, we had a good bike ride to the festival and back and a pleasant time.  Sunday was one of our warmer days so far this year, so it was good to get out and ride around and acclimate to a little sun and heat.

Afterward we got home and relaxed for a while.  Amy made some really good tortilla soup for dinner (spicy!!), and after dinner we watched some more of the Ken Burns Jazz documentary on Netflix.
It was a really nice day.

That was about it!  Hope everyone else had a decent weekend.

Tori at the Height of Her Power

This is a recording of Tori Amos from a 1998 taping of Sessions at West 54th.  She had just released From the Choirgirl Hotel, which I still think of as her best album.  Matt Chamberlain played drums on this tour, and Jon Evans played bass.  They're both awesome.  Matt Chamberlain is great at throwing in flourishes and playing around rhythms while still keeping the beat rock solid. I know that Chamberlain is a drum hero of my own longtime friend and drummer, Reed.  On bass, Jon Evans has this really amazing and cool ability to pull off lyrical musical phrases on his instrument while still solidly holding down basslines that bind the rhythm to the melody.
And, of course, Tori Amos is an effortlessly great piano player.  Her voice alternates between soothing and shrieking- breathy and powerful.  Her music sort of pushes and pulls, soars, sobs, and implores.