Random Musings

Farming lessons

2009-06-22T04:02:35Z

Need a good laugh? Here's our summer corn harvest:

Those are the full-sized ears, about a few inches long each.

Lessons I've learned from trying to grow things in Austin:
- Water the corn more, especially in a drought. More fertilizer might have also helped.
- Plant more things earlier, so they're done growing before the hot weather hits.
- Squash can go from thriving to dead in a matter of days. Powder mildew and root critters are not your friends.
- Critters like to "top-off" (chop the leaves off the stems) okra and melons. Even when the plants have been put in wire cages to avoid this.
- Garden artichokes aren't as big as grocery store versions (and nothing like the softball-sized ones found at Whole Foods), but are still quite tasty.
- Tomatoes can indeed take over entire gardens, even down here.

I am so ready for the fall season to try again.

Rock Star Parking

2009-05-25T01:53:09Z

Mom was in town for a few days about a week ago. While she was here we used her handicap parking tag to limit the amount of walking she needed to do. So, during her trip we mostly got to have rock-star parking wherever we went. But not all places had enough handicapped parking for their clientele.

The good:
- Kerbey Lane (if I'd realized we had the magic ticket at that point the spot was ours)
- North by Northwest
- Amy's Ice Cream/Phil's Ice House
- Sun Harvest

Other places with plenty of empty handicapped spaces that I noticed after mom had left:
- Sears (ok, the whole lot was mostly empty)
- Costco (on a busy Friday night with a mostly full lot)

The bad:
- The Grist Mill down in Gruene
- The Oasis (on a Friday night: 8 spots??? -- Seemed like an excuse to push the valet parking)

My conclusion: On Friday nights, handicapped people are much more interested in margaritas than buying in bulk. I mean, why wouldn't they be?

Avast ye orderly marchers

2009-05-07T04:12:29Z

We had a belated anniversary celebration down in Corpus Christi this last weekend. While driving around on Saturday we saw folks lining up for a parade during the day. Hey, a night parade on our vacation. Why not?

It was the strangest parade. Things I'd never seen before:
- A night parade. I'm a yankee. Nights are for fireworks, which were apparently canceled due to high winds. Note to politicians: take a hint from the rest of the floats and get some light on your name. The signs on the side of the pickups weren't visible *at night* without help.
- Rented porta-potties. Rented by a family for their pre-parade picnic/BBQ. For their private use. Marked "private." The public porta-potties were separate (and apparently very clean - hat's off).
- Volunteers asking if folks needed trash bags before the parade. Some of the volunteers in embroidered jump suits. These folks are serious.
- Motorcycle cops flying jolly roger flags. It was the Buccaneer Days Parade after all.
- So much space between acts. Yeah, we were at the end of the course and things can stretch out a bit. But what's the point of having the cops clear the course just to have it fill up again before the first floats? There were a bunch of times where people started looking around to see if that was the end, just to have another set of floats come around the corner a few minutes later.
- So many bands, with color guards, with people old enough to be my parents. Or older. Where did they come from? Does Corpus not have any high schools?

I'm sure that all this would have made more sense if I was a local. As a tourist it was fun to see an unexpected parade. The floats were colorful. The low-riders were cool. The Shriners kicked ass. All in all it was a very nice parade.

And hat's off to the Blackbeard tavern for still serving dinner after it was all over.

Titles

2009-03-04T16:02:25Z

Got up early this morning. Watered the veggie garden. Trimmed Jacques' bangs so he can see.

Does that make me a farmer-barber?

As for the getting-up early department, Boo got himself stuck under the bed twice between midnight and sunup. It sucks to be an old dog.

Give 'em shelter...

2008-09-16T17:53:55Z

After having become a "Certified Citizen Volunteer" for the city after Katrina, I figured I should help out with the Ike shelters even though I'd just gotten back from an overseas work trip. So on Saturday I went through the Red Cross volunteer signup. I got a 6pm-6am shift at the Canyon Vista shelter that night. [Hi honey, I'm home -- see you tomorrow!]

With so much happening, of course things weren't running as smoothly as possible. The constructive criticism I'll give back to the Red Cross is:
- Please coordinate better with the city (or to the City of Austin: please coordinate better with the Red Cross). All of the signup and the criminal background checks I'd done for the city had to be re-done with the Red Cross's systems.
- Please give more information to the folks signing up. The handouts were good, except you took one back from us as part of the signup process. The web site listed shorter shifts, but when we got through the training and started signing up for shifts you were asking for 12 hours straight.
- Please re-think the whole "won't accept donations at the shelter" thing. I can understand not coming within a mile of cash and check donations. But what's up with asking shelters to turn away blankets, pillows, etc.? I'd rather have more people on busses than bedding. And it's not easy for folks dropped off at a shelter away from public transportation to fend for themselves. I can understand wanting to encourage self-sufficiency. But if it means that an 80-year old woman is sleeping in a chair since she doesn't have bedding, something's not quite right.
- Please re-think the whole "code of conduct". First of all, I never had to sign one of the sheets in the packet. Secondly, what was listed in the slides was much better than the written material. The focus should be on helping the evacuees. The printout form only covered Red Cross covering it's ass.
- When asking for volunteers, please ask up-front for bi-lingual volunteers and those that can cover weekday shifts.
- Please review the contract with the folks doing your criminal background checks. The only woman I saw that read all of the fine print left because of it.

On the good side, things were much better run than during Katrina. I missed the initial chaos at my shelter as people were admitted and things settled down. By the time Saturday night came around things were running smoothly. The bedding issues had been addressed thanks to the neighborhood's charity. The evacuees had (mostly) figured out how to get around the area (at least those with cars). The kids had things to play with, so folks crashed quickly after lights out. The shelters were not jam packed -- only a few chose to sleep out in their cars instead of inside. The police officers were friendly and helpful. The pets were on-site. The school's maintenance staff and food staff stepped up to keep the place clean and to serve food and water. The principal was on-site the whole time (crashed out on a cot overnight). Evacuees were helping each other run errands and were helping us with translations, announcements, etc.

I'm sorry that folks had to evacuate. The ones at Canyon Vista came from some of the worst-hit areas: Bay City and Beaumont. But I'm glad that Austin has the heart to step when needed.

I'm glad I got a chance to meet some of the evacuees. I'm glad I had a chance to talk with APD and Austin Energy employees as we stayed awake through the night. And I'm glad to have met the shift supervisor. While I probably disagree with her politics, it's good to be reminded that neither political party has a lock on smart, down-to-earth people.

Visit with Uncle Michael

2008-08-15T17:12:37Z

Ms. J's uncle was working up in Bryan this week. Instead of having him drive all the way into town we met him out in Manor for dinner last night.

Cafe 290 in Manor: Good road food as long as you like it fried. Damn easy to find, as long as you ignored the Google/MapQuest directions (Manor is *not* west of Austin!).

The Oaks, a bar just south of Manor: Great music and very friendly to new faces. Nothing like a litter of puppies out back to keep Ms. J happy. Surreal to have a throwback dive bar just south of the new, suburban housing development.

All in all, a very nice evening.

Being Part of History

2008-03-05T14:57:49Z

Caucused in our new precinct for the first time last night. Last time they had 13 people. This time they had over 200. The split for Senate District delegates (at the county convention): 15 for Clinton, 20 for Obama. More than I expected for Obama in a neighborhood that seems skewed to the older side.

By the time delegates were selected, things had cleared out to the point that everyone that wanted to be a delegate became one. J and I stayed for the resolutions. But when we got kicked out of the school at 11pm, J went home to rescue the beasts and get some sleep (her mom's coming to visit today). I went on with the group to Denny's to plow through the rest and finally have dinner. We wrapped up around 2:30am (whew!).

The best parts:
- Meeting more neighbors.
- Liking the neighbors that I met, even if they preferred the other candidate.
- Having everything be smooth. After hearing about contentious neighborhood association meetings, etc., I'm happy to live in a precinct where folks were working together cooperatively.
- Having an "iPhone moment" during the resolution phase -- to look up details of an act -- via the Denny's wireless network. It changed our opinion on the resolution from skeptical to supportive.
- Getting educated about state computer systems and alternative energy from neighbors that work in those areas, as we worked through the resolutions.

Next day regrets:
- Realizing that I should have proposed a resolution to help control candidates like Gene Kelly, who perennially run on their names and then do no campaigning. I'd been bitching that "the party" should change their rules to rein folks like him in (his name is enough to sometimes win primaries, or at least cause run-offs, but the lack of campaigning means he's a sure loser in the fall election). It didn't hit me until this morning that the caucus was a place where a party member could bring up the issue to "the party". D'oh!

Mr. Awesome FedEx Man

2008-01-25T21:10:15Z

The dogs started barking when the FedEx man parked across the street.

So I went out to meet him, just to keep the doorbell-ringing and dog-freaking-out to a minimum.

After getting my package and signing for it, he gave me a couple of Milk Bones for the dogs. That rocks.

Feelin' Grinchy

2007-12-21T04:15:40Z

Having a dog break a laptop keyboard sucks. (Hey! There's someone in the back yard! Let's lunge on the desk so we can jump and bark and scare him away! There he goes! Life is great!)

Having it happen around the holidays sucks even more. Ask for expedited shipping and get a good laugh from the sales staff.

At least the laptop has a plethora of USB hubs, and my closet has a few keyboards hanging around.

On the good side, we've been nominated for a Jolt award in 2008. [For non-geeks, this is a big developer bragging-rights thang.]

What's your walk score?

2007-11-19T18:24:32Z

Found at tech blog I read, a website that will calculate the "walkability" of a neighborhood.

http://www.walkscore.com/

I've gone from a score of 38 out of 100 (with 100 being the best) to 77 in our new house. While some of the places used in it's calculations are marginal (hardware stores too specialized to really use, unavailable libraries in "state" schools, etc.) the marginal places were far worse in the old place than the new.

First person to blog to austinbloggers with an austin-related post using the site will win my admiration, gratitude, and maybe even some pecans from our yard. It's a cool site, but I'm too swamped with work now to spread the word.

Poetry Slam Finals

2007-08-12T04:58:45Z

Stopped working long enough to hit the National Poetry Slam finals in Austin last night and tonight. Not some Beatniks out beyond the bend, but real folks spilling their personal demons. And a couple of fun ones. And the winner from last year and the kid-winner this year taking us to..., well, just somewhere else.

Never thought I'd be rooting so hard from folks from *Killeen*, of all places.

Just wish tonight's DJ was local, she'd have been perfect for the wedding. [Props to Ms. Muse, with a treble clef on one arm and a bass clef on the other.]

What's up

2007-07-07T04:53:51Z

An update of what's up:

- We're in the new house.
- The old house is finally on the market. Rain especially sucks when you're waiting for contractors to get a house ready to sell. But it's great for new grass seed. Go figure.
- The current animals are getting along, behind their appropriate doors. Yes, I am currently a cat herder. In between herding herding dogs.
- Ellie's off at a rescue group going through another round of bootcamp, on her way to a new home. She's loved, but the emergency animal vet bills just got too high. Namely the one just hours after she got back from her last boarding/training. And we were scared of her hunting instincts kicking in around running cats. Added to impressed list: Etosha Rescue. Added to not-impressed-list: TripleCrown.
- Jacques continues to be the perpetual motion machine. Even on a day when he was knocked out to have his stitches out. And thus hasn't eaten since yesterday.
- While I have no scientific evidence to prove it, things do seem to be wacky in this period of Mercury being in retrograde. For example, my insurance company can't find my last home insurance payment in among the other $59K paid to it last month by my mortagee. Or maybe I'm just worn out from all the new-home/old-home/contractor stuff and what would otherwise be random annoyances seem to be a pile. [Hey insurance company -- you know my mortgagee's contact information. Can't you be the ones calling their sucky phone support line trying to get an answer to a problem not in their expected list?]
- The best news is that mom's cancer is shrinking.

What's the scoop?

2007-05-23T16:38:14Z

I've been quiet about recent events, hoping not to jinx anything until the deal was in the can. But we've given some hints about a possible house-closing party which theoretically would happen this Friday.

The news is that buying a house is currently much easier than renovating one. So our plans to renovate my place got transmogrified into placing a bid on a house on Shoal Creek and having the bid accepted. As with my last house purchase, the idea was to have a party the evening of the closing. It's much easier to dance when there aren't boxes in the way.

Ix-nay on the arty-pay. The closing is still supposedly on track. Even though I have yet to see papers on the second mortgage (to cover us until the old place is sold). Somewhere there's a mortgage underwriter that's trying to give me a heart attack.

So this Friday we'll head out and see Steve Riley and dance some zydeco. And, assuming the closing does happen, we'll have a "new floor party" in a week when the carpet's been replaced with bamboo. And maybe there will be a new tankless water heater to show off too. And finally a dog run in the back yard with a climb-proof fence for Ellie.

Meanwhile, my horoscope is saying that pressure is good for me. Between the house, good stress at work, and bad stress from the return of my Mom's cancer, I think I'm covered. Now, how much is a margarita machine? And do they come in colors that match the new kitchen?

[And how the hell does "transmogrified" pass a spell check? :-) ]

Why I love the Alamo

2007-05-05T17:44:24Z

We finally got out to see Hot Fuzz last night, at the Alamo Village.

Tucked into the corner of the parking lot was a Spider-Man inflatable jumping, er, thing for the kids to bounce on in celebration of the Spider-Man 3 opening night. The cell-phone picture sucks, but the black wall in the middle is made of velcro and there was a kid-sized velcro suit for sharing.

An unexpected but cool touch by the Alamo folks.

Viva informal recycling

2007-04-30T16:29:14Z

I love ~~Immediate Freecycling Day~~ er, Bulky Trash Pickup in Austin. Most of the junk I'd left at the curb only lasted about an hour. I just hope only children try to sit in the chairs, Ikea pine furniture can only be repaired so many times, and they were wobbly to begin with...

Note to self

2007-04-03T20:27:36Z

Don't skimp on the tree-trimming budget.

I've retired!

2007-03-29T20:55:07Z

Or at least I got to click the "retire now" button when finally rolling over my Motorola pension. Nothing like retiring at 40. Hoo, haa!

Ok, now back to cranking out code for my current job...

Valentine's Day Wrap up

2007-02-19T16:46:02Z

Well, the celebration for Valentine's day was supposed to be this last weekend. A couple's massage at the Crossings, a Snatam Kaur concert (Kundalini yoga singer), and the ballet.

However, things got rolling earlier. A ring jumped out at Jen last weekend. The stone arrived on Wednesday (Valentine's Day) and was mounted by midafternoon. That evening the question was popped and answered. We're now engaged.

For those who like shiny things, pictures of the ring can be found at:
http://postcardsfromjen.blogspot.com/2007/02/i-said-yes.html

The massages and the SK concert were also nice. But after those and a Chinese New Year's milonga on Saturday, we missed the Sunday ballet matinee (and the marathon traffic around it) to catch up on stuff.

Next step: merging households. We'll figure out a wedding date once the house situation is more under control.

One era down, waiting for the next to begin

2007-01-26T18:10:34Z

GloverTango played their last gig at Cipollina's last night. The Cip management wants to take the place in a new direction and will no longer be hosting live music. And it's fair to say that the Thursday night tango crowd was starting to overwhelm the place. All in all, a ?five?-year gig for tango is a pretty decent run.

Where they will wind up next is still up in the air. But many folks have their thinking caps on. We'll see....

And speaking of seeing, let me just say that having your eyes dilated for an eye exam sucks rocks. It was great to have an early lunch afterward with unwiredben, but a bit weird to not really be able to see my food (unwiredben was far enough away I could see him). As for working on a computer, I was about at the point of grabbing a screen reader. The only thing worse is looking forward (NOT) to a follow-up appointment next week.

Bad body update from a friend

2006-11-30T14:29:35Z

Happiness is hearing that my friend M's preventative surgery for brain aneurysms (3!) went well. Apparently the anesthetics are still messing with her - I'll be even happier when I hear that she can keep food down again. But it was good to hear that she was feeling well enough to send her mom out for UCLA swag from the gift shop. If things go as planned, she'll be back in Austin on Sat.

Changing youth behavior

2006-10-31T05:09:25Z

When I heard that grannies were wearing hoodies to make 'em uncool for the kids to wear, I thought the whole thing was pretty funny. But while I haven't heard whether the concept works for hoodies or not, apparently it works with pot:

"When Californians approved one of the first medical marijuana laws, in 1996, drug warriors were so convinced it would lead to a catastrophic spike in illegal use by teenagers that they sponsored a study to document the damage. But there was no catastrophe: after the law, marijuana use by teenagers actually declined in California." [From "The Immoral Majority" by John Tierney in the 10/31/06 NYTimes.]

I really don't know what could be less cool than a sick gramma/grampa heading to the corner to smoke with their other sick and smelly friends. Brilliant.

Now, I just hope the Boomer's don't start wearing their jeans around their ankles to make that uncool.

Why dogs don't rule the world...

2006-10-21T17:49:47Z

That thing. In my hand. That you want to bite. It's a staple.

Miss Trip

2006-10-21T00:32:15Z

Last weekend, J and I ran out to the Mississippi gulf coast for a quick family visit. It was the first time her brother was bringing his partner down to MS, and the plan was to make things a little more relaxed by having me show up for the first time too. Or at least spread the stress around. Actually, everyone was on their best behavior during the weekend. And as the celebration was around birthdays instead of the usual holidays, the stress level was quite low.

We stayed at the Island View Casino hotel, on the site of a previous hotel. The hotel just opened up last month, it's still going through growing pains. All of the rooms were gutted and redone. Quite snazzy, but a little off-kilter. The desk lamp (with phone plugs) was next to the bed instead of being on the desk. The duvet was sweet, but protected by two sheets instead of a duvet cover. The room book was missing. Want room service? They'll read you the menu since they can't find any more books. Without prices. The food was ok to good (the gumbo was tourist-style -- bland) but the prices weren't cheap. Which contrasted sharply with the casino below. Since there aren't tourists yet, they're targeting the locals. Mostly 1c and 5c slots and very few tables. The place was pretty crowded over the weekend. We didn't hit any of the other casinos in the area, but we heard that the Island View is the nicest one open so far. The "boat" casino rules have definitely changed. Not only could we gamble on dry land, you could also gamble via the TV in your room. I'm happy to say that we walked away with the shirts in which we arrived. No great wins, but no great losses either. Although we came back with all the quarters we took since all the machines are now paper-driven. Apparently too many casino tokens were stolen after Katrina -- they're no longer used.

As for the coast, it's a strange hodge-podge of new construction down the road from places waiting to be town down. The new construction along the coast seems to be casinos and condos. All of the souvenir shops, gas stations, and houses along the coast road are still gone or sitting empty (missing windows, first floor walls, etc). While there's still debris wrapped around some trees, most of the lots have been cleared off. While the weeds may be high, a lot of places had recovered bricks stacked up. The beaches are still closed, since they won't be safe until the underwater debris can be cleaned up. Apparently you can see the tops of tree branches during low tide. The roads are bad. It'll take a while before they'll have the cash to rebuild the road beds and the utility lines below them. The shower's water was smelling a little funky when it rained. Most of the town centers contained boarded up buildings. In Jen's parents' house, the tree-filled lot from the post-Katrina pictures has been turned into a mostly-empty lot. There are still a few trees, but it's not the grove it used to be. There are still a few dead trees in neighbors' lots that need to come down before they fall. As for new construction, it seems like they could use some more "regular" apartments instead of condos. The local Motel 6 was going for $79/night. Crazy.

On the good side, the Walter Anderson museum was open. It was great to see that the adjacent community center, whose walls were covered by Anderson, came out ok. And the video about Anderson starred James Best (Sheriff Rosco. P. Coltrane from the TV Dukes of Hazzard, speaking in a more natural voice). The museum had some post-katrina pictures. The two that were Bush-related were pro-Bush. Welcome to Trent Lott country. It was nice to see that the health food store across the street was also open. The store talk was about which yoga teachers were up-and-running again.

Besides the so-so hotel room service, the gulf food was fabulous. The restaurant across from the Island View was amazing. They'd rebuilt the place from the slab, to the original plans, post-Katrina. Excellent sea food *and* a well-appointed waiter doing the "it's your birfday" dance. On the other end of the price scale, the places coming back first seem to be Waffle Houses and Sonics. Not that I'm complaining.

The nicest new place was the new Humane Society digs. The place looked great, and the animals inside were good looking and well groomed. I'm happy to say that we were strong. While we hit the gift shop to help slide them some more $, we didn't bring back any new animals. It was cool seeing a flock of navy cadets arrive to help in the shelter and help walk the big dogs.

As for New Orleans, we drove through it on the way back. We didn't stop since something in the air was making it hard for J to breathe. On the way in, we got to see apartment complex after apartment complex that were still empty. Picture driving down the row of places along Metric and having it be a ghost town. Some places still had blue tarps on their roofs, others had large holes that were still open. At 1pm on a Monday, there was a line of people down the side of a downtown church -- looked like folks were still lining up for food. On the bright side, the Superdome looked good. When the Saints won that Sunday, apparently it took a while for folks to leave the stadium. They were so excited about the final score that they wanted to stick around a party a bit more.

All in all a nice trip. But I've now got a new bumper sticker thanks to J: Make Levees Not War.

Bevo trailer

2006-09-28T22:31:05Z

While certainly not a UT fan, I now know what the Silver Spurs' Bevo XIII trailer looks like. It's parked across the street in one of the super-twos (huh?!?).

Sadly, Bevo himself seems to be absent. So much for having cattle for Jacques to herd.

Greenlings!

2006-09-28T14:04:20Z

No, not the small people that live on the moon.

I'm talking about the organic produce folks that bring it right to your door (http://www.austinorganicdelivery.com/).

J and I have signed up for the bi-weekly Local Produce box. Hitting the local farmers markets weren't happening as often as we'd liked. It's much easier to have someone bring it to us. We're on our second order. While the selection may include things I'm not used to buying for myself (uh, yankee, cooking greens, uh) it's been fun to lookup recipes for what we've been getting. And, expecially between ACL and having colds afterward, it's nice that the produce lasts longer than what we've been getting from local stores.

In the last order, we got a refer-a-friend coupon. You get $10 off your first order -- which would cover the deposit for the plastic bin they deliver things in. We'd get $5 off our next order. If anyone's interested and/or has questions, lemme know.