Overheard in Austin

I almost forgot ... when we were there a few weekends ago at the Nickel Creek concert at Stubb's, about an hour before the concert actually started.

Girl behind us: My feet are killing me.
Guy behind us: Why?
Girl: These are my bar heels.
Guy: Okay ... ?
Girl: I'm usually drunk when I'm wearing them.

That makes perfect sense. I guess.

Let us pause...

...to commemorate two momentous happenings.

1) It's Thanksgiving weekend, and I did not had a single bite of turkey for the first time ever in my whole entire life. We had a sumptuous garlic encrusted pork loin at my FIL's on the actual Turkey day. We actually bought a turkey to make today, but got lazy and stuck it back in the freezer last night (it wasn't at all thawed anyway) and heated up a ham instead. At the last minute, though, I started acting like a mom whose son was home from college for his first Thanksgiving, and we pulled out the ingredients we thought we might stash away for a traditional turkey dinner at Christmas. We made green bean casserole (Todd's dad's favorite. Or not.), creamed corn, smashed potatoes, fruit salad, rolls, and last, but certainly not least, Todd's creation--pumpkin cheesecake. My mom commented that it tasted just like Cheesecake Factory's, and Todd and I exclaimed, a little sarcastically, "How crazy!" It was, in fact, their recipe.

2) We have a Christmas tree up and decorated the Saturday following Thansgiving for the first time in about six or seven years. It's not the "real" tree--the one with crazy colored lights and ornaments handmade since age two by everyone in the household--that one will follow in a couple of weeks so it's not too dry by the 25th. No, this is the fancy schmancy one that gets to shine in the front window with white twinkly lights for passersby to admire and say "ooh! aah!" as they wistfully stare and wish they had theirs up already. Okay, so we finally finished at 12:30 a.m., but it is done. (And besides, when did we ever do anything early in the day?) I told Todd that this is what happens when I'm not stressed out and I'm doing the work I love. :-)

Ha. You thought I was going to say, ""Let us pause to give thanks," or something cheezy like that, huh?

(But yeah, let us. We have a lot to be thankful for.)

Tourists R Us

How can you live in a place for years and not visit what tourists come for miles to see? We're pretty good at it. Nonetheless, we made several traditional Texas stops on our weekend trip.

First, it was Stubb's BBQ for an amazing concert Thursday night. We saw Glenn Hansard (of The Frames) and Marketa Irglova, who perform together as Swell Season, together with several other Frames band members. Glenn and Marketa are the pair who star in Once, the movie I raved over several times a few months ago. It's coming on DVD December 18. Get it! We're buying three copies so there will no bloodshed in the house.

They played several songs from the movie,


as well as songs from their Swell Season CD, and then some standard Frames' stuff, including my favorite, Star Star. (Blogged about it a few months ago.) Also, a cover of Justin Timberlake's Cry me a River. (No, really.)

We went to Katz's Deli after the concert, a favorite UT hangout, which is open 24 hours a day. We cleaned the kitchen out of egg salad on challah with four at the table ordering it. Jay, Gail, and Andy were along for most of the weekend, and Jay was adventurous with the cheese stuffed potato, but there was ewwwwy cole slaw left at every spot at the table, I believe.


Kristen was a little dismayed when we had to traipse through the attached bar to the shared ladies' room and kept her eyes averted from the waitresses dressed as cats. While I was holding Kristen's stall door shut to protect her from any accidental cat invasions, a dazed male customer ventured in. He just kind of looked at me puzzled for a moment.

"Wrong room," I said.
He responded, "Wowwwwwww," turned, and left to go across the hall, I presume.

Friday, we did a tour of Toy Joy, where I spent much too much on things simply for the nostalgia they conjured, but truly, they are CHRISTMAS PRESENTS. ;-) ;-) (To Julie, Love, Santa). Then, it was Buffalo Exchange, an UPscale thrift store with prices higher than I pay at Kohl's and a few other thrift and record stores. For lunch, we stopped for some amazing burgers and other fried delicacies at Dirty Martin's Place. The girls were fascinated by the turbo hand dryer in the restroom.

Then, it was on to Sixth Street and the tourist shops, including an oh-so-fun, yet incredibly expensive hatshop, Vertigo, a Hat for all Seasons:


(Is that a small animal on Kristen's head?)


Yeah, baby


(This girl really does belong in the country.)

... and Waterloo Records, before we finally collapsed at Shady Grove for tasty (without an "E") meat and potatoes and AMAZING peanut butter ice cream pie. I sulked and stared at Ryan and Kristen and Gail and Andy eating theirs while Emilie and I suffered through a plate with three pancake-sized chocolate chip cookies covered with five scoops of ice cream.

We kissed our friends goodbye in the parking lot, and sent them on their way with Emilie so she could make it to regional band competition playing her very large bassoon Saturday. (And she made the band this year. Woo hoo!)

Saturday, we wandered all the way down to Gruene (about 30 miles), and while I leisurely sampled my way through the Texas salsas and dips in all the gift and antique shops, Todd and the kids did whirlwind tours then sat in front on chairs like this:


And this:


And this:



Gruene is a tiny hamlet that has been "gently resisting change since 1872," and it shows. This little oasis makes you feel you've been magically transported to another world. It's peaceful and relaxing, and the weather was a little misty and 75 degrees. What more could you ask for?

Dinner at the Gristmill was beef tenderloin sandwiches and strawberry shortcake a mile or so tall. I drove everyone crazy with my usual photo stops every three inches. Have you ever seen a cluster of china berries oops, I mean firethorn (or pyracantha) berries this big?



And the effect of Christmas lights on a misty day is enough to drag even the most reluctant person into the holiday spirit.

We didn't stay for a concert in Gruene this time. Last time we were there, we saw Nickel Creek at Gruene Hall, Texas' oldest dance hall. Nope, this time, we were back in Austin--back at Stubb's--for Nickel Creek's "farewell (for now) tour." Nobody covers Toxic or the Jackson Five (Oh, Baby, give me one more chance) like Nickel Creek. Ryan was oh, so pumped because he got an over-21 wristband on his looks alone. It was a waste of a wristband, but still, good for his ego.

After the concert, we drove all the way home. We did a 2 a.m. potty break at Czech Stop in West, Texas (the town, not the region), which is open 24 hours a day (hey, just like Katz's!) and gave ourselves middle-of-the-night heartburn attacks with kolaches, sausage and cheese rolls, and the most amazing chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting and a Hershey's kiss on top. Enough sugar to fuel the last 80 miles without sleeping and cause us to laugh hysterically at nothing in particular as we wound up on an FM road we'd never taken before.

Ryan came up with an idea for confusing his future children. He says whenever they ask, "Daddy, how much farther?" he'll answer, "I don't know. We're lost." For some reason, we found that funnier than anything we've ever heard.

That was a fun weekend.

New CDs: $60, and that's like SIX CDs!!! (including the live recording of the Old 97s concert we saw there in 2005)
Togetherness: Priceless. Except when we were deciding what to do and where to go every five minutes. ;-) I love my family.

Dang, it feels good to be a ...

Check out Paul's blog on My Part of Colorado from November 14. Makes you feel so proud to be a Texan and/or Christian, if you are one, huh?

And I have no idea why that other stupid song started running through my head (see my blog title). If you can name that tune, keep it to yourself. LOL

"I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
-Mahatma Gandhi

Somebody loved

I ran across this song today on Julie Person's blog, and it jumped out and grabbed me. I had to look up the lyrics. I really like this group, but I'm not sure I've heard this song.

Somebody Loved/The Weepies

Rain turns the sand into mud
Wind turns the trees into bone
Stars turning high up above
You turn me into somebody loved

Nights when the heat had gone out
We danced together alone
Cold turned our breath into clouds
We never said what we were dreaming of
But you turned me into somebody loved

Someday when we're old and worn
Like two softened shoes
I will wonder on how I was born
The night I first ran away from you

Now my feet turn the corner back home
Sun turns the evening to rose
Stars turning high up above
You turn me into somebody loved

I'm going to make Todd blush here when he randomly picks a day to read my recent blog entries, as he does periodically. Because, yep, he turned me into somebody loved. Even when I get all weird-headed and doubtful, feeling like I am unlovable and unworthy, because my brain was trained to be that way for so long in my past, he just stays right there and waits, and I remember.

It is a blessing to be married to your best friend.

(I'm adding the song to my project playlist player at the bottom of the page if you want to listen.)

Small world, big difference

Bungi has a meme on her blog today that sheds some interesting light on cultural differences. I commented that I had most of the material items her living space is missing. Is missing really the right word? Probably not. Maybe "free of" is a better word...she doesn't have to clean a bathtub or oven! But durnit, where's my househelper? ;-)

Bungi seems like she has higher financial status than I would guess a lot of her fellow citizens in India have, and yet, these things we take for granted in even the majority of the poorest homes in the U.S. are "extras" there. (Oven, bathtub, porch, for example.) On the other hand, here, mostly the wealthy are the ones with house help, although I think it's more common when both parents in a household have to work. (To support their multiple bathtub habit. Heh.)

And, wow, I am put to shame when she says her floors are swept five days a week. But, Bungi, I want to know--is it you or your helper doing all that sweeping!?

My favorite is the "Comet or Soft Scrub?" question. Or rather, her answer. "Uh?" Heh!

Captain Who? What?

Yeah, I'm gonna have to create some self-imposed filters that don't allow me to blog after 1 a.m. It gives you, the reader, a far too realistic glimpse inside my actual brain.

It's a little frightening looking back.

These are a few of my favorite things

Raindrops on roses, and whiskers on kittens,
Movies and music and Ryan with mittens ... (I mean mocassins ... lalala )
Cheeseburger tacos with onnnion strings...

1) Todd and I saw Martian Child Saturday night. I really loved it. Me and only 22% of the movie reviewer population on rottentomatoes.com. Those people. What is so wrong with a movie full of schmaltz (read: people learning to love each other)? Who freakin' cares? If it makes you happy, it must be bad, they say.

John and Joan Cusack are full 'o fun, and this was quite a serious movie, but still fun. It had some (not-so-sly) political messages that kind of cracked me up. We've come a long way since the Dixie Chicks scandal of not so many years ago. I wonder if Hollywood could have gotten away then with panning into sharp focus--not once, but twice--a picture of George W behind a school principal explaining to David (John Cusack) "We're just not equipped to handle a child as different as Dennis here in our school." Whatever your politics, it was quite an overt message, I thought. Todd gives me a hard time and says I read too much into movies or music sometimes, but I dunno ... I kind of enjoy looking for the subtle and not-so-subtle messages sent through media.

2) Annual trek to see my fav-o-rite musician, singer/songwriter David Wilcox tonight. This year, I might add, I am proud to say I recommended to Dave's manager that he try to book him at the Bend Studio, and he did. I'm positively famous now, obviously. He was supposed to play their Ft. Worth venue, but ended up doing two Dallas shows instead at a place called Rock House Films. It was a smaller setting than we've seen him in the last few years, which was cool. He sang a hysterical new song I'm absolutely sure will lead to a new nickname spoken under the breath around the house (not in front of the children, of course) at certain times when people are acting like ... well, like Captain Wanker. :-O

3) Ryan joined us for a pre-birthday celebration at the concert. We were devastated to find that Tin Star, which was only a few short blocks from Rock House, and where we were going to enjoy the best ever cheesburger tacos, was gone. It's been replaced by a restaurant called Mooyah, which sounds suspiciously like Hooyah!, one of our favorite Denton restaurants, only it serves burgers instead of burritos. What is the world coming to when Tin Star goes away from Uptown Dallas? I almost cried. Instead, we had some pretty good pizza from I Fratelli, and luckily, there are four other Tin Star locations in the Metroplex.

Ryan is making his way toward the last stretch of his first semester in college. He mentioned it's interesting that he's the only one of his friends with a job, and also the only one who always owes his friends money. What's up with that?

Anyway, we enjoyed his hole-y mocassined company to celebrate another year of Ryan, and another year of David Wilcox. He sat in awe and got real excited when Dave sang "Leave it like it is," one of his favorites. I told him I'd start calling him Kitchen Blue if he'd like, because he is definitely "a unique." (Ten bucks for the reader who can identify the movie that line comes from.)

Now when the paint jar tipped
Off of the table
You watched as it started to fall
Glass popped, shattered and splattered
And paint spray hit the wall

Bright, blue glossy enamel
Across the kitchen floor
You said, "Good God, look at that pattern
I've never seen that before"

Leave it like it is
Never mind the turpentine
Leave it like it is
Its fine

Now when the paint dried
You gave it a title
You called it "Kitchen Blue"
A white frame painted around it
And gallery lighting, too

Rich folks come over to dinner
They all want one of their own
They say "How much? Who's the artist"
And, "My what a beautiful home"

Now most folks suffer in sorrow
Thinking they're just no good
They don't match the magazine model
As close as they think they should

They live just like the "paint by numbers"
The teacher would be impressed
A life-time of follow the lines
So it's just like all of the rest

Leave it like it is
Never mind the turpentine
Leave it like it is
Its fine

Wow, this is getting way too long, and I think it's because even though the clock says it's 12:41, a few days ago, it would have been 1:41. I think I'd best be going now.

You think *I* was grouchy?

Lest anyone think I am some kind of Trick-or-Treat Scrooge, please don't think I had a problem with the dressed-up infants. One of my own little people made an especially cute Jerry to her older brother's Tom when she was less than three months old. He himself was a purple grape a week before his first birthday. Then, there was Toto (a/k/a my youngest) the year the kids all dressed up as Wizard of Oz characters. They were all so cute you wanted to gobble them up.

I only wrinkled my forehead at the mothers asking for candy on their infants' behalf. Bring those babies along, please, just leave the plastic pumpkin at home. Do like I do--go sneak candy out of your other children's loot bags when they're at school. ;-) Of course, there is also that half-price candy clearance they hold every year the next day ...

Anyway, I laughed right out loud when I read Elizabeth Berg's blog from November 1. Apparently, I wasn't the only cranky lady that night, but man, she one-upped me! That woman cracks me up every time.