Boom Boom Boom

After I dropped off Andrea at the airport on Monday I called into work to see if my boss needed me to come in for anything. She said no, but hey did I want two free tickets to a show at the Paramount? Hell yes! She won them in a raffle one of our staffing firms does every once in a while but couldn't go. The tickets were for the Kodo Drummers that were only playing one night. It's a troupe of drummers from Japan that put on amazing shows with all types of drums, including the huge ones that guys sit in front of. (see pictures to get an idea) The place was sold out. I had never been to the Paramount so that was a plus too. It's a really old theater that has balconies and beautiful murals painted on the ceiling....and really really tiny seats. Jayne came with me, and she's 5'10". Her shins were pressed against the row of chairs below us. I'm only 5'4" and it was pretty tight. Luckily I was near the end of a row and no one was beside me so I could sit a little sideways to stretch out. I don't know what really tall people do. It was an amazing show. As interesting as the drums were, I didn't want to buy a CD. I think for that type of performance the fact that you're seeing it live really makes it that much more enjoyable. Being there and feeling the vibrations of the drums going through you and through the seats was incredible. What really impressed me was the synchronization. One segment had seven drummers sitting on the floor. The middle guy started doing a very light tap tap tap. One by one the others joined in, but they were exactly on time so for awhile you didn't realize it was more than one person. The beats were exactly on. Then one would play off beat and it was fun trying to figure out who was playing the piece, they kept switching and then playing the main beat. Very creative.

http://www.austintheatre.org/site/Calendar/1009394307?view=Detail&id=11348

http://www.kodo.or.jp/frame.html

These guys had some amazing abs. It's like holding a situp for a few minutes while beating your arms. Now that's a workout!

This was Jayne's favorite part. The flexing of his butt muscles was quite distracting.

Big drums. Loud noise.

Italy 14: Yay for the Italian Bureaucracy!

Here's one more Italy post! One of our train trips was delayed for a couple hours while we were on the train. When we got off, people were talking about going to customer service and getting a refund. Supposedly if the train is delayed for a certain amount of time, passengers can fill out a form and turn it in with their ticket to get a voucher for another ticket. But, if you live out of the country you get a reimbursement check. We figured, why the hell not. I had paid for the tickets with my CC, so I filled out the form with my home address. We really didn't think anything would come of it. I mean, you always hear stories of the ineptness of the Italian Bureaucracy. But, we figured it wouldn't hurt to try. Well, guess what came today as a registered letter! Our check for $74.74! Hot damn! I am so shocked. It only took three months for them to issue the check, two weeks for them to get around to mailing it, and two weeks to get to my house. I called Mike & Annette and Matt about it. We'll just blow it all at a nice restaurant. This has totally made my night.

C'mon, don't you want to move to Austin??

Hey there. Sorry about the long absence. My old high school friend Andrea came to visit me over the weekend. Fun times were had.

Friday: Her flight from San Jose was supposed to get in at 6pm but ended up being delayed two hours due to bad weather on the east coast playing havoc with the schedule. But, when I picked her up, she was hungry so we went to dinner at Chuy's which was my original plan anyways. We got there around 10pm and still had to wait about 15 minutes. It was yummy, as usual.

Saturday: Got up around 9, ate our leftover Chuy's for breakfast and headed out to the Capitol building. I had never been because I knew Andrea would visit sooner or later and since she's an architect I figured she'd get a kick out of it. We got there around 10 and found awesome street parking right in front. Andrea is my good parking angel. We first went to the visitor center and got some cool free maps of Austin and Texas. Then we went to the Capitol and took the free tour. It's really pretty inside and the TX star is everywhere. I guess we're lucky that a star is easily integrated into decoration. In the House of Reps and the Senate they even had these huge chandeliers that had TEXAS spelled out in lights. Yeah, it was kinda tacky. While we were there a junior high boy's choir group were singing songs under the dome. That was pretty. The acoustics made it really resonate through the building.

Traditional arm-length shot. This came out pretty good. Good angle for the dome.




uh, yeah. Texas pride!


After the Capitol we drove down to Nathan's house. Nathan drove us all (Tony too) to the Salt Lick in Driftwood (one of the must-see barbeque joints). I hadn't been there in a couple years since it's so far from me. But, since Nathan is already so far south, it was only about 20 minutes away. At first they said it was a 45 minute wait, but our beeper went off after 10. woo hoo! The barbeque was better than I remember. The pork ribs were awesome. I think they're known for their turkey. Brisket was ok, but I like Rudy's more. Very good lunch.

After we got our car at Nathan's we drove back to downtown and walked around. Andrea wanted to see the Frost Building and the City Hall which are really cool buildings. We went back to my place to check on movie times cause I wanted to take her to the Alamo. She wanted to see Music and Lyrics By. Unfortunately even though we got there 15 minutes early for the 7pm showing it had sold out. Ghost Rider (my backup) was sold out too. We ended up going to the Regal Gateway which is my favorite regular theater. We were still a bit full from barbeque so we got a large popcorn and shared it. We saw Music and Lyrics By with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. Definitely a chick flick. It was cute. and damn...Hugh Grant has been working out! There was a shirtless scene and the man was lookin good!


Austin City Hall. I heard it was designed to be as energy efficient as possible. It was my favorite building before I even knew it was City Hall.



Frost Tower. I think that's the old Driskell Hotel below it.




We went back to my place and fooled around with my music for awhile and then headed to 6th street. We got there around midnight and the place was packed. My usual parking lot at 7th and Trinity was full, so I was all set to wander around downtown looking for an open lot when a car in front of us on the street pulls out! We got free street parking at midnight on a Saturday night! Parking angel strikes again! We walked around 6th street for a bit and even though it was 45 degrees, most of the girls were dressed like hoochies. We weren't really there to 'party' so we dressed for the weather. We ended up at Bourbon Rocks listening to a great cover band (with a female singer) that was playing 90s alternative - Collective Soul, Alanis Morrisette, Foo Fighters, Toadies. They were really good so we stayed for awhile. We left around 1:15 cause I knew it would take awhile to drive back to my house and Matt was picking us up at 1o for shooting (more on that). When I got back to my wonderful street parking...someone had parked in front of me! It wasn't even a spot! I had a meter for my spot damnit! He just parked in front of me. Luckily I had left enough room behind me that my little Corolla could get out. I was so pissed off that some ass just wanted to save $6 in parking. It was a really dusty black SUV, so I wrote FUCKER in the dust on his back windshield. Heh. We got to bed around 2.

Sunday: Andrea hadn't been shooting in a long time, so I asked Matt if he'd take us out to the range (cause you know my lack of weapons vs Matt's plethora of fun stuff). He said he'd pick us up at 10 and we'd go to a range in Leander I hadn't been to before. Jayne's schedule got moved around so she was in town too. They all met at my house and Matt drove us in his Jeep. We got to the range around 11:30 and stayed for a couple hours. Andrea kicked ass with his .22 and I did a few clips of Matt's 9mm Glock as well as Jayne's Sig. I did a couple clips of the .45 too. Mostly I just reloaded clips for everyone. Matt has this really funky Glock reloader-cheater thing which makes reloading the clips kinda fun. We also shot the 'noisy cricket'....reference from Men in Black. Matt had this teeny tiny gun (called a 380?) and just had one clip of bullets for it. Jayne was excited to try it out...until she tried it out. I couldn't believe it could be that bad...but yeah it was. It's the kind of gun you'd imagine a woman strapping into her garter belt or something. It so oddly shaped, and when you pulled the trigger, you just kept going and going and going till you thought maybe it wasn't going to fire...then blam! Very odd. None of us liked it, but it was fun trying something new.


Andrea kickin ass on the 9mm



Heh. Matt had this huge-ass clip that held 30 bullets at a time. I asked him if it was legal and he just said 'this is texas'. They don't even have to REGISTER their guns here. Coming from CA that just blows my mind. Figuratively. So this is me with his short-grip 9mm and huge frickin clip.


Andrea and I didn't have a set schedule for Sunday so I asked if everyone wanted to go to lunch. On the way out to Leander Jayne had jokingly mentioned Blue Bonnet Cafe in Marble Falls. They're known for their pies. So, I threw that out as a suggestion. Jayne said no, it's too far out....but then we talked for a little bit more, realized none of us had any plans for that day whatsoever...and hey, pie sounded good. We drove about 45 minutes out to Marble Falls only to find out the place is closed on Sunday! Noooooo! We were already so far out, Jayne then suggested Cooper's Barbeque in Llano - about another 30 minutes. It's famous for their big pit o' meat where you point out what you want and the guy cuts it all in front of you. Cool! On the drive over we saw a bunch of cars pulled to the side of the road with people staring into the countryside. There was a tree about 50 yards from the fence with a bald eagle perched on a limb next to its nest and with a baby bald eagle inside. Matt had his binoculars in his gun bag, so we got a terrific closeup view. That was the highlight of the whole day. How often do you see bald eagles in the wild? Very cool. The barbeque was very yummy. The sauce was different from anything I'd had before...more vinegar based. I'll have to get out there again. According to Jayne (who goes there so much the workers knew her) people that live out in Georgetown or up north actually take little planes to Llano just for the barbeque. Yeah, I could see that. While at Coopers we saw a real cowboy! Well, he had on jeans, a cowboy hat, boots, and SPURS! We kept our eyes out for a truck with a gun rack, but no luck. When we left Coopers Matt's Jeep was the only non-truck vehicle in the parking lot. heh. There's LOTS of trucks out here.

Here's the map to give you an idea of my house to the shooting range to Blue Bonnet to Coopers. I'd never driven out in the Hill Country before. it was pretty- lots of cactuses (cacti?) and cool gnarly trees.


After barbeque we decided Andrea needed some gelato from this great place in Round Rock. Unfortunately when we got there it was closed too. We ended up at Amy's which was fine with me since that's a local Austin place too. Then we went to Mike & Annette's to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Only Andrea and Jayne had seen it. Very disappointing. All it does is set up the third movie. It reminded me of the Matrix where the first movie was so awesome and everyone loved it. Then the second one comes out and you feel confused, betrayed, unsure of where the writers are going. But you still have faith because the first one was so good! Then the third movie comes out and you feel like the writers just crapped all over you. I really hope the third Pirates move redeems the franchise. Otherwise, it'll be just like the Matrix trilogy where you just want to forget about two and three (yes Melanie I know you love all of them. You are weird).

We got home around 10:30 but then messed around some more with my music until 2am.

Monday: Andrea's flight wasn't until 4:40pm. We went to Kirby Lane for breakfast...love their pancakes. We then went to Innerspace Caverns in Georgetown. I really love those caves. I went two years ago when Nathan first visited me and really liked them. Andrea got a couple of good pictures and the tour ended with plenty of time for me to drive her to the airport. Her flight ended up getting delayed again due to east coast weather. At least she had some leftover barbeque to tide her over.



Ok, did I forget anything?

Don't get between Texans and their banana pudding

Wow, that must have been some terrific recipe I found for Banana Pudding. It was five layers, using one whole box of Nilla vanilla wafers and about 9 bananas. The girls at work ate the WHOLE THING in less than 5 hours. They just inhaled it. I tried it, and hey, I actually like Banana Pudding! (or at least my recipe!) They all said banana pudding is a big thing down here and couldn't believe I'd never had it. Another one of the managers is from Chicago and she'd never heard of it either. So, I guess it's a southern thing. They also ate about 80% of the mousse pie. I brought the rest to Party Games night at Jerry's. It was a little bitter, but not too bad. I just finished making the other one for the Chocolate Party tomorrow. Maybe next time I'll try using a different chocolate.

Suckered

This week at work has been fairly mellow (ignoring the $7000 medical supply order my rep screwed up.....grr argh). My boss is on vacation in Hawaii and I thought I'd be able to fuck around all week, but I've actually gotten a lot done. Around 4:30 today three of the girls in A/R came into my office to ask me a favor. Their manager's birthday is Sunday so they were going to do her party tomorrow. Our office only has 12 people in it and we always do stuff for people's birthday. I said ok, fine. Then they said that none of them know how to bake, so would I please make banana pudding for the birthday party? What? They know I'm a decent baker and I bring in cookies and whatnot every once in a while. They said they didn't know how to make banana pudding and didn't want to mess it up. Have I ever made it? No. Have I ever even eaten banana pudding? No. They begged and begged and after seeing a pretty straightforward recipe on the internet I said fine, I'll do it. I'll consider it my present to her. Then, one of the girls had the audacity to say that the only reason she wasn't doing it is that she was afraid she'd make it and it turned out badly. Well, honey, all bakers have that fear when trying something new. You just give it a shot and if it comes out horribly, it's the thought that counts, right?

After work I went to my gigantic Walmart/grocery store that's just down the street. I was going there anyways to pick up ingredients for the chocolate dishes I'm bringing to the No Kidding Annual Chocolate Party on Saturday. I'm trying a couple new recipes there too. My first bad sign was that the banana pudding recipe calls for a 6oz package of vanilla pudding. Well, those penny pinching assholes at Jell-O now only make 5.1 oz packages of vanilla pudding. Grrrr...... I chose to believe it will be fine using only the 5.1. I didn't want to buy a second one and start guessing at the quantities. So, I get everything I need and head home. Did I mention I've never even EATEN banana pudding nor do I really remember what it looks like? Sigh. The pudding was causing me worries cause it was pretty damn runny. I stuck it in the fridge for 10 minutes and that firmed it up. I used a whole box of Nilla wafers and probably 9 bananas. I made it five levels high. I have no idea if it's how it's supposed to be. Guess I'll find out tomorrow!

For the chocolate party I'm making a chocolate mousse pie and cream cheese brownies (I've always wanted to try making those). I haven't made mousse in years and I lost the easy recipe I had. I found one online that seemed ok - no baking or alcohol needed (some even called for Cognac! whatever!) Now for those of you that have never made mousse, it can be tricky because you have to melt the chocolate to just the right consistency and you have to make sure you whip the cream up firm enough. After I got done with the banana pudding I decided to do a test run on the mousse. I had bought enough to do two. So, I made that up too and will bring it to the birthday party. It's in an Oreo crust pie tin, but I held some mousse back in a little glass cup to try it out. Not bad. If the banana pudding is a bust, this will be the backup. I love having backup dishes when trying something new.

Whereabouts

I really hope I’m never suspected of a crime. “So, where were you last weekend?” Uh….let me think…..I should probably check what I wrote in my blog! Heh. My memory is becoming such a wasteland. What did I do weekend before last? I have no idea. I know sometime in the past couple weeks I hung out with Joan, went to brunch with Nathan and Tony, watched Superman Returns at Mike & Annette’s (horrible movie), hung out with Melanie, ….but I can’t remember when all that was! So sad. Oh, and I did get my new roof – it looks awesome!

Saturday was new volunteer orientation at the shelter. Feb is always our biggest month. I think it’s cause people make New Year’s Resolutions to volunteer more, but January is just too early for them to get organized, so they start in Feb. We had 24 cat volunteers and 40 dog volunteers. That’s double what we usually have for cats. Luckily I have a new helper – she’s a new volunteer that started last month but is very gung-ho about it. She helped me do the tour part. She said she’ll help from now on, which is wonderful. It’s only once a month. I stuck around for a few hours afterwards and played with some of the new cats. I don’t have any favorites right now. But, every once in a while we’ll get in a really cool cat and I have to remind myself that three is absolutely my limit.

After I got home from the shelter Matt called and I went over to Mike & Annette’s to watch UHF with Weird Al. It’s one of Mike’s fav movies, and I’d seen it probably 10 years ago. Matt had never seen it. It was funnier than I remember. They never show it on TV though, don’t know why.

Sunday was the annual ‘un-superbowl party’ that one of the No Kidding members throws (instead of watching the game we just watch commercials). It wasn’t an actual No Kidding event, so there were a bunch of people I hadn’t met. There were probably 50 people scattered around the house, upstairs and down. Upstairs was so packed and rather warm, downstairs family room was for people actually watching the game. I ended up hanging out in the kitchen with some of the No Kidding members, including a girl that just started coming to events and is pretty cool.

Her name is Jayne and she is my absolute favorite bachlorette. She’s a pilot for a private airline – she basically flies rich people around, but can’t really tell us any stories cause of the NDAs she’s signed. We chatted for a bit, and she mentioned that she was going shooting Monday night at an indoor range that has ‘Ladies Night’ on Mondays – ½ off the lane fee and free gun rental with purchase of ammunition. I hadn’t been to an indoor range since St Louis, so we made a date to meet up. We met for dinner and then went to her house for a little bit before going to the range. She’s got a house that she designed on a golf course and it is gorgeous. She also has a pool table (score!). So, we went to the range and I rented a .45 and she brought her 9mm Sig. I just did 50 rounds on the .45. Those things are just too big for me. But, I loved her 9mm. It’s a lot thinner than the ones Matt has and it fit my hand really well. I was kicking ass on the targets. Ok, yes it was only 15ft away, but I was getting some really good clusters. The only bad thing about her gun is that the reason it’s so slim is that there’s only one row of bullets. So, it only holds 8 at a time. As soon as I was getting into my stance and getting comfortable with my grip I would run out of bullets and have to reload. That was kind of annoying.

We were only there for an hour and then went back to Jayne’s house to play pool. While I was over there I helped her re-hang a painting that was crooked and had been bugging her. That’s one thing that sucks about living alone – it hard to do some things around the house with only one pair of hands. She also has some rooms she needs to paint and some boxes she needs to move to her garage attic. I told her to call me anytime to help, cause I know how it’s tough sometimes to ask people to help out with stuff like that. It also helps to have someone motivating you, saying ‘ok, let’s get this done!’ That’s what friends are for, right? Luckily I have my parents in town so I’ve been able to take advantage of them for some of that type of stuff.

Well damn, that’s a long post!