Fresh, Hot Wastes of Time

We went to see Zodiac at the Alamo Drafthouse last night. It was long, but I thought it was a great flick. The first half deals with the murders themselves, while the second is about the subsequent investigation. Great acting by all involved, and nice period settings.

After I came home, I spent about 4 hours obsessing on the unsolved code. Robert Graysmith, portrayed in the movie by Jake Gyllenhaal, claims to have solved it, but IMO that’s a joke. Some interesting theories, discussion, and argument floating around out there, though. Enough to waste houuuuuuuuuuurs on. Which I did.

Also, I just wrote a suggestion to the Drafthouse that if they’re going to show a three hour movie, at least let people know ahead of time that last call will be 30 minutes in. Pretty parched by the end, there.

ETA: Wow, that was quick! I just got an email back from Tim League, who founded the Drafthouse. He said that the early last call is one of his pet peeves, and it’s something they’re working on. He wants to have last call be 45 minutes before the movie ends. Awesome!

ETA2: And shortly after that, I heard from the manager of the Alamo Village, offering to send me passes. Have I mentioned how much I love the Drafthouse, even if their last call is early?

After hearing for years about their fabulous enchiladas, the family and I went to Dart Bowl today for some bowling and dinner. We entered the restaurant area around 6:20, and ordered at 6:25.

At 6:45, still nothing. A customer from another table went to the kitchen and stood in the doorway until someone finally acknowledged him.

At 7:00, the people sitting behind us who sat down a good 20 minutes after we did got their food.

At 7:15, we’d had enough. No food, no eye contact (actually, the waitress was visibly ducking us), no refills, no “your order will be out before midnight,” no nothing. We left five bucks for the drinks and took off.

Their enchiladas may be good, but I won’t know about it.

We headed over to Phil’s Icehouse instead. I adore their Violet Crown burger (patty with grilled onion and bleu cheese on a jalapeno bun). Their onion rings were cooked to a turn, too. It’s just a shame that the patties were so overcooked. The butter rum from Amy’s next door made up for it, though.

Finally more about The Nutcracker!

A few weeks ago, David Wyattsent an email to the Austin Bloggers mailing list offering local bloggers the opportunity to attend a technical rehearsal of Ballet Austin’s The Nutcracker. I had already purchased tickets to one of the performances, but I thought that the kids (okay, okay, and me too) would really like to see backstage at Bass Concert Hall, as well as see an actual rehearsal in action.

I was slightly concerned about taking the magic of the stage show away from the kids and I sat them down to talk about it. My older daughter and I went to the show last year, and after seeing my younger daughter sit still for hours watching the Baryshnikov version on DVD, I decided she was old enough to go this year, too. So I told them both about what they would be seeing, and how it might take the illusion away that the ballet is effortless for the dancers, but they were both still interested in going. Of course.

When we got there, Lance Johnson, the marketing director, showed around the bloggers, giving them a tour of backstage and explaining how the company works. They’re moving into a new home in a short while and apparently have been very lucky with patron donations to fund it. They offer the house to disadvantaged kids on dress rehearsal night, which I thought was really nice. Heck, after seeing the great time the girls had at the rehearsal, I’m considering putting them in the Petite Partners program.

The show, of course, was wonderful. It’s amazing how many people they can pack on the stage at once, between all the adult and kid cast members. And by the way, going to one of the matinees is really, really fun. You have never in your life seen so many little girls all dressed up in their holiday finest. I guarantee.

A big thanks to Ballet Austin, David Wyatt, and Lance Johnson for putting this together. They really won over the kids, and I’m sure we’ll be attending more shows together in the future.

Started out with hubby heading over to Gamestop to wait for their delivery truck. He scored a Wii, extra controllers, Zelda, Call of Duty 3, and Trauma Center.

Then my husband and I independently bought Roombas (robot vacuum cleaners) in today’s Wootoff.

Then I received a call from a professor at school, who had gotten my name from one of my instructors, and who invited me to be a New College student member of the Teaching, Learning and Technology Roundtable.

Then I rounded up the girls and we headed over to a technical rehearsal of Austin Ballet’s The Nutcracker, which opens this weekend. There was a kind invitation extended to the Austin blogger mailing list for admission to anyone who would like to attend the rehearsal and have a backstage tour. The kids really liked it. I think I might have gotten some nice pics, too, so I’ll try to write up more about it tomorrow or so.

Oh, and on my way to class the other day, I saw a small owl divebombing the runners on the Town Lake Hike and Bike Trail and two unicyclists.

So far I’ve got As in all my courses. I turned in my final project and took the exam for Interpersonal Communication (A-COMM 1312) on Tuesday, so I’m waiting to hear back on that. If I don’t even show up for the final in Intro to Comm (COMM 1306), I’ll have a C. I need something like a 60 on the final to get an A in the class.

Guess it’s time to start Christmas shopping, stollen baking, and tamale wrapping soon. A friend of ours gave us a jarful of freshly-rendered lard that we’ll use for the tamales, and I think we’ll try making some from feral hog.

ACL Fest is in full swing again, which means that I can almost hear it from the house. From inside, it sounds like maybe a neighbor two doors down has a garage band over to practice. If I go upstairs and listen from the bathroom window, it elevates me to where I’m almost over the hill between here and Zilker Park and I can hear better. Last night I listen to Van Morrison play Brown-Eyed Girl. Apparently I didn’t catch Gnarls Barkley in time to hear Crazy (I thought it would be a finale, but it wasn’t). Right now I can hear Los Lobos playing. Tonight’s Willie Nelson, and tomorrow is Tom Pettty.

You’d think I would be able to hear better from the back porch, but the sounds of the air conditioner units and passing cars drown everything else out.

Click for large version.

Big storm last night. This is what 50 mph winds can do to your trees. Luckily nobody got hurt – it didn’t hit the house. Also, our 500 year old oak tree came though unscathed.

Back in November I wrote a post about Good Mourning Tree Company who kept leaving flyers on my door. That post has been very popular on this website, garnering several search engine referrals from people looking for more information about the business.

Today we got another flyer. They’ve changed a bunch of information around so that the searchable terms have decreased. The company is now calling itself “Good Morning Tree Co.” (note the change of spelling) and all references to its felon owner, Sid Mourning, have been removed.

They’re still at the same telephone number: (512) 420-0733, although they’ve removed Sid Mourning’s 512-657-4349 number.

This is the company that came into my back yard, climbed the stairs over my garage, and left a flyer on the guest apartment door, as well as leaves countless reams of spamvertising on my front door. One time they left a flyer while we were out of town. For the next week we had that white banner on our front door proudly announcing that we were out of town. When I called Sid Mourning in a good-faith attempt to get his company to quit soliciting my house, he told me that nobody would rob my house and that I must have too much time on my hands.

We went to the Louisiana Swamp Romp today. At the gate there was a security guard. She stopped me and asked to look in my fanny-pack. She was taken aback when I asked, “And what are you looking for?” Her response: “Stuff that shouldn’t be there.”

Thank you for that enlightenment.

Ironically, it could very well have been a concealed carry pack and she never would have known. Not to mention that my husband was carrying both a knife and a gun on his person (legally) and never even got a second look.

Makes me regret not carrying today. Stuff that shouldn’t be there. WTF is that supposed to mean? I don’t know if I’m madder at the mall-ninja for her vague and uber-authoritarian stance or at myself for unzipping the pack and showing her my collection of sunglasses.

If I were carrying in the pack, I wouldn’t have been able legally to show her what was in it. It’s a concealed handgun license for a reason. So what if I had refused? I wonder what she would have done.