Austin Day 6

Took the seester to work Tuesday morning and had to pay close attention to the roads so I could not only get back home but also so the wife and I could return to pick her up later. Back at her place, we set about cleaning up her apartment and replacing necessities, such as toilet paper. Lemme tell you, the amount of food we'd all been causes a person to really tear through the... well, you do the math.



GASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL: Ate the remaining jalapeno boudain I'd bought, plus eggs all wrapped up in tortillas. This breakfast feast was made by my wife in the seester's kitchen. After picking up the seester, we met our friend Georgina for lunch at the Hyde Park Bar & Grill. They have a giant fork speared with cheese fries outside. And there was spearing of cheese fries to be done inside too. Georgina recommended a burger called the Horseshoe and I was the only one to take up the challenge. The menu describes it as thus: "Originally served on a horseshoe shaped plate, this dish starts with Texas toast topped with 8 ounces of ground sirloin and cheddar cheese, then it is smothered with a velvety cheese sauce, piled high with Hyde Park Fries, more cheese sauce, diced tomatoes and fresh scallions. This dish is comfort food at its best!" And let me tell you, that description was not lying. You couldn't even see the entree for all the cheese fries that had been piled on top of it. But once you were able to get to it, ohhh, but it was tender and delicious. I declared that had the entire thing been sprinkled with bacon pieces first, I could have eaten it and died happy right there. As it was, I had to eat it sans bacon and it was still pretty damned close to a poetic tombstone quote in its deliciousness. Georgina was impressed I ate it all, but she does not know that I refuse to be defeated by mere food.

After that, we went shopping at Toy Joy, a toy store over on Guadalupe, followed by a record store. Then we walked over to the Spider House cafe/bar for some coffee and chatting and watching of all the people running around in their woolen hats, cause damn it was pushing 59 degrees. At 3:15 in the afternoon, we weren't the least hip people in the joint, which was refreshing. As our flight left at 5, we needed to be at the airport around 4, so we hit the road and clawed our way through afternoon Austin traffic. We said good byes to the seester, did the TSA screening thing and ate more of Delta's cheese & crackers on the way to Atlanta. Had a 2 hour layover there, so we ate at TGI Fridays, where the tables are so close together you can't even think. I ordered fish & chips and a local beer called Georgia on my Mind. It was all pretty good, though nothing really to write home about on the beer. It was smooth enough, but pretty standard beer. The fish & chips were okay too, though I've eaten fried Alaskan halibut with gourmet chips at the Glacier Brewhouse, so it had little hope of making a blip on my culinary radar. Plus, who really goes to TGI Fridays for good food?

We're now back in NC, where I'm hastily dashing this entry off before we hit the road. It's very cold here and I haven't packed anything particularly warm to wear. I could use a woolen hat. I'm supposed to be back at work later this afternoon. I told Mrs. A I might be late. I wonder if she'd mind if I phoned in dead for the day?

Austin Day 5

We took things a bit easier today, at least activity wise. After brunch we saw the parents off to the airport, then spent the afternoon driving around the Lake Travis area and seeing the spa where my sister works as a massage therapist. We all had a nice nap back at her place to sleep off the effects of lunch. We attempted to drive down to Hippie Hollow, the clothing-optional section around Lake Travis. We were going to invoke the option of keeping our clothes on, but the $10 entrance fee seemed a bit steep, particularly a day as "cold" as today. It actually feels pretty darn warm to us, but you get anywhere below 65 degrees and Austinians start breaking out the parkas and salting the roads.

GASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL: We met my friend Gordon at the Hula Hut for a 11a late brunch. Turned out to be more of a lunchy affair, as that's the sort of food Hula Hut serves. I ate a MASSIVE enchilada called a Pipeline. The damn thing was nearly as thick as my arm. That pretty much took care of me for the afternoon and I didn't eat another bite until dinner. In fact, my stomach spent a bit of time protesting all the good food I've been eating lately. I was not to be stopped by a little ache, though. Dinner was a Royale with Cheese burger eaten at the Alamo Drafthouse South, during a screening of Juno. Excellent movie, by the way. Afterward, we returned to Amy's Ice Cream where I again ate a Mexican Vanilla waffle cone with Reesey cups and Nutter Butters crushed up in it. In fact, we had extra cones on hand, donated to us by the staff who kept breaking them trying to flip our ice cream in the air as part of their Benihana-style ice-cream acrobatics. Once again, I had to slap a stranger.

Austin Day 4

After breakfast, the parents went off on their own to visit a friend of theirs in town while we went shopping. Our first stop was Dragon's Lair Comics on Burnett. While I really love Austin Comics & Books, Dragon's Lair was a very high quality surprise. I didn't expect another shop to come close to the coolness of AC&B but DL came pretty close. What they lacked in sheer volume, they made up for in a nice store layout and warm atmosphere. (AC&B has a warm and friendly staff, but the lighting is a bit more fluorescent in feel.) We headed north to an outlet mall for shopping. Later we stopped at a Giant Book Sale store, which was going out of business and offered books at around 75 percent off and better. It was like a "liberry" book sale, only with books in better condition. I only found a couple, but the wife found a huge supply of trashy romance novels, which she views as junk food for the brain, but consumes all the same. In her line of work, it's good to have something you can read and don't have to remember AT ALL.

GASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL: Started things off with part of an orange from the hippy market. Then we headed out to Austin Diner, on Burnett, where I devoured two breakfast tacos, one with crisp bacon and one with sausage (the bacon one was better), as well as a side of black beans and a biscuit. Ahh, bliss! During our shopping trip, we stopped at the outlet mall food court where I ate a gigantic Philly cheesesteak and shared fries with the wife. I'd only ordered a small Philly sandwich, but they gave me a biggun anyway. It was pretty good. The meat was cheap, but the bread was quite nice. Had to eat it. Unfortunately, that was around 3 in the afternoon and we'd planned to meet the `rents for dinner. So we gave ourselves three hours to digest and met them at the Clay Pit Indian restaurant, on Guadalupe. Other than the service being a bit slow, the food was fantastic. We each ordered a different dish and then shared around the table. I enjoyed Khuroos-E-Tursh, which the menu describes as: "Medallions of chicken breast stuffed with seasoned spinach, mushrooms, onions & cheese, simmered in a rich cashew-almond cream sauce with a hint of sweetness. Served with basmati rice." This was the first time I'd had this particular dish and it was delicious. My dad's choice of Kabuli Chicken ("boneless chicken cooked in our korma sauce from the curry house & infused with a paste made from pureed nuts, raisins & cherries") was slightly better, though. Probably the best dish on the table, in fact. After waiting half an eternity for our waiter to fetch our check (in his defense, I think the place was understaffed and he had probably two too many tables to mind) we headed to Spider House, a cafe/bar on 29th, where we sat under heat towers on the patio, drank tasty coffee and watched the gathering of UT hipsters all of whom were far cooler than we could hope to aspire to. And while there were waiters on the patio, you wouldn't really know it. They slunk along the sidelines, aggressively refusing to make eye-contact and only appearing on the patio itself to lurk over and snatch up empty coffee cups at moments calculated to be least likely to allow you the chance to ask them for anything. After a bit, a "dj" set up and began playing music which may as well have come from an iPod set to random. While some of it was good music, the "dj" seemed to take great joy in the juxtaposition of unlikely combos, such as segueing from Metalica to Kenny Rogers and attempting, with wild levels of both irony and unsuccessfulness, to blend them. We had great fun despite and because of his efforts. Spider House was a cool place to hang and wind up our evening.

Austin Day 3

Had fun hanging out with the `rents and seester. Shopped a bit through the day, including a visit to one of my all time favorite comic shops in the world, Austin Books & Comics. Holy shit, that place makes me SO happy! They have EVERYTHING and lots of it. If it's a graphic novel or a trade paperback you want, they have multiple copies of it. I purchased Powers: Secret Identity, the latest collection in the Powers series.

Later I saw one of my oldest friends, Gordon, and met his dog Lucy.

GASTRONOMICAL JOUIRNAL: Went to breakfast at Juan in a Million, on Cesar Chavez. They have a breakfast taco called the Don Juan. It's only about $3.75 but is food to feed the 5000, or at least me. You have to have extra tortillas to finish the sheer amount of eggs, potatoes, bacon and cheese that they haul out for you. We all ordered one and then went into food comas. It was a late breakfast, though, so we didn't eat again until 5p when we went to dinner at Iron Works barbeque. Pretty good stuff there, too. Had the beef plate. Afterward, we headed over to Waterloo Records and Amy's Ice Cream, which is a locally-owned version of Cold Stone Creamery. I had a massive waffle cone filled with Mexican vanilla ice cream mixed with crushed Reeses cups and Nutter Butters. Then I smacked a random stranger, it was that good. Late in the evening, my sister's friends Star & Liz threw a gathering in our honor to finally meet us. Beer was drunk and cats and small dogs were tormented.

Austin Day 2

We had fun seeing the sights today. The sister took us up to the top of "Mount" Bonnell to get a view of the area. Now after having been to Alaska, I no longer really count WV's mountains as real mountains, but this was pretty much just a large hill. We went to a nature conservatory and saw lots of peacocks and squirrells. My `rents arrived mid afternoon and, after eating, we hit Book People, one of my favorite independent bookstores, and later tried to see the bats fly from under the bridge, but the parking is kind of nonexistent there cause of some construction, so we wound up missing them.

GASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL: Ate homemade breakfast tacos, jalapeno boudain (that I found in an H.E.B. grocery store) and toast at the seester's place. Ate a late lunch at Casa Garcia consisting of the Casa Especial plate, which had a taco, enchilladas, queso dip, rice, beans guacamole, etc. and more chips than anyone has any business eating. It was fantastic. Ate a prailene. Ate some amazingly good trail mix that the wife made from igredients picked up in the bulk bins down at the hippy market (a.k.a. the Whole Market down by Book People and Waterloo, I can't remember the street). I also enjoyed a Sam Adams and a white russian, though only one each. So far I'm holding up admirably.

Austin Bound

The Wife and I have hit the road--or the air, as it were--to Austin, Texas, to visit my steenky leetle seester and my `rents.

I haven't taken any pictures yet, so no Postcards from Austin.

GASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL: So far today I've eaten a piece of pizza at 4 a.m. before driving to the airport, one and a half packs of cheese & crackers on our flight from Atlanta to Austin (which is Delta airlines version of a breakfast feast), a migas taco and a breakfast taco at Kerbey Lane Cafe in Austin, a Kevin Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato at the Alamo Drafthouse while watching No Country for Old Men. This sandwich had an irresponsible amount of bacon on it, which was impossible to contain within the confines of two mere pieces of bread. Throughout my meal, it kept falling out the sides of the sandwich and raining down into my food tray. It's the kind of problem I like to have, though, so I didn't mind. I also drank a $5 milkshake, (it's a pretty fudgin' good milkshake; I don't know if it's worth $5, but it's pretty fudgin' good) and ate chips and salsa. Later I ate a peanut butter & jelly sandwich and some chips with a Sam Adams Scotch Ale, as well as various snacky things around my sister's apartment.

Good times.

A Death at Christmas

Around 11p last night, we finally rolled in to Tri-Metro, returning from our Christmas Holiday with the wife's family in North Carolina. My cat, Winston, mewed at the sound of our arrival and came out of the bedroom to complain at us for leaving her alone for a few days. As is usual, she was fat as mud from having gorged herself at her cat-feeder while we were away. All was not well with our other pet, though.

I had just listened to our answering machine messages and was about to head back down to haul up another load from the car when the wife came in and said, "Oh, no! My fish is dead!"

Yep. There in the crystal bowl on the table between the two comfy chairs was our Betta fish, Betta Prime. He floated on his side, his formerly vivid red and black coloration now a dull gray. The water around him was now a bit cloudy on the surface and there was a lone piece of fish food floating nearby. I'm no CSI: FISH expert, or anything, but he looked like he'd been dead for a few days.

For those of you who don't own Betta fish, they tend to die a lot. They're not exactly hearty little souls and have a life expectancy of around 2 years. In fact, Betta Prime was originally named Betta Gamma, as he was the third in a series of Betta fish we've owned since we first married.

Our first fish, Betta Alpha, actually lived for nearly four years, having survived three moves (one of which was interstate), algae poisoning, algaestat poisoning, a tussle with a cat, dozens of tussles with his own reflection and some pretty serious rage issues. We thought he was indestructable, though, until we woke up one day and found him dead.

Betta Beta, who came into our lives a couple of years later, was defective from the start and only lasted about two weeks. His downfall came in the fact that he did not seem to recognize fish food as something he should eat and refused to do so. Eventually, we discovered that he liked freeze dried blood worms and fed him those. However, the blood worms tended to disintegrate in the water, which wound up poisoning it and ultimately killed him despite a last minute water change. That's our theory, at least.

Betta Gamma was high quality from the start, though. He was bright red, feisty and full of life. Not only that, but my wife trained him to jump out of the water on command. Each night when she would go to feed him, she would hold up the red-lidded Betta fish food container and say, "Jump for mama! Juuuuuump for mama!" Betta Gamma would flair out his fins and glare up at the intruding container. After a bit of frustration that its bounty wasn't being distributed to him, Betta Gamma would leap out of the water and look very angry indeed. It was astoundingly satisfying to watch. We decided he was the coolest Betta ever and thus rechristened him Betta Prime. We loved him as much as any two people can love a Betta fish.

We don't know for sure what happened to Betta Prime. Before we left Saturday, the wife fed him well and gave him an extra food pelet or so, as we would be gone through Tuesday. (We took him with us during Thanksgiving, but he didn't like it at all and refused to jump for mama for a week as punishment.) After that, the wife poured some leftover water from two bottled water bottles into his bowl. She worried at first that the temperature variations might upset him, but the tank water was already heated by our fish water heater, so we figured it would settle out soon enough.

Our major theory at this point is that we might have overfed him or that he ate his food so fast he choked his fool self. The fact that there was still a piece of food in the water with him leads us to believe he died shortly after we left.

We'll probably get a Betta Delta, but likely not until we return from our upcoming trip to Austin to see my sister and parents.

Betta Prime: RIP.