Post-October wrap-up & such

So I meant to post last month, but I had an ongoing project that kept me away from doing so for the most part. What project you ask? Well, October as you know brings Halloween, which you may or may not know is my favorite holiday. And so my little way of celebrating Halloween all month long is to watch as many horror movies as I can, including a big marathon near Halloween. While there was no single big marathon to be had what with having a toddler in the house & nowhere else to go & have it (without my driving back to Dallas at least), I did succeed in watching a slew of horror films throughout the month including a few that I caught on the big screen. None of the big screen films were new, but I had not seen any of them before & two of them (Duel and Anguish) cost me $2 per ticket (the 3rd, Zombie, was $10, which combined means I still paid less than $15 to see 3 movies in a theatre...not too shabby, eh?).

And so as you may also expect from having kept up with me, I turned all my watching activity into a list. As luck would have it, I wasn't the only person on Listal who created a horror-centric list for October. So I provided links to the other people who had similar lists to mine in the sidebar of my list, & thus was able to check in on their lists throughout the month. This led to a lot of interaction among us, kept up my enthusiasm for watching horror movies, encouraged me to check out a few films that I hadn't originally planned to, and resulted in my feeling more connected to the site than I ever have before. (And for more of my thoughts on my viewing, if you're interested, you may also check out my October re-cap in my Watched in 2011 pt. 2 list.) To say I enjoyed it would be an understatement, as would be saying that I'm missing it a little. On the upside, however, I think it's safe to say we'll all be doing this again & I know I'll be looking forward to next October!

And before I move on from the subject of horror, I finally finished publishing all my lists of my favorite horror movies for each decade, all of which you can find links to from my My favorite Horror movies by decade list. Several of them were altered throughout last month, so I almost wish I'd waited to publish them until after October. But no matter.

So yeah, October was full of horror movies & not much else outside the usual working 4 nights a week & taking care of E 5 days a week. Halloween was pretty good, she & I dressed up & we visited our neighbors but didn't take her trick-or-treating. We didn't see the point of it since 1) she can't say "trick-or-treat" and 2) she can't eat candy & we don't need to eat candy for her. So instead I kept my werewolf mask nearby & put it on most of the times I answered the door to give out candy. Got some fun responses from the kiddos, and we had several of them show up...definitely seemed like more than last year, and probably our Halloween decorations in the yard helped attract them. To see some other Halloween-related photos, stop by the baby blog if you haven't lately (V does a FAR better job of keeping that one updated than I do keeping this one updated). I know somewhere there's also a video of her saying "monster!" and "mummy!" but I'm not in the mood to go searching for it right now. :P

Most recently, this past weekend was Fun Fun Fun Fest which expanded to 3 full days of music instead of the usual 2. That decision was made AFTER we bought our tickets, & we wound up not buying Friday tickets. Then when the schedule was announced I was bummed to see that the 2 bands I most wanted to see were slated to play Friday night, & seriously considered buying a ticket. Well, as it turns out it's best I didn't. You see, the 2 bands I most wanted to see were Murder City Devils & Danzig Legacy. I've seen Murder City many times, so while I was bummed about missing them it wasn't that big of a deal. Then when I found out that pitchfork.com planned to stream the entire festival anyway, I was happy when I managed to tune in for their set (and because I was home I was able to catch most of Public Enemy's set before the feed cut out for some reason). Danzig Legacy, on the other hand, sounded like a rare opportunity...Glenn Danzig tours with his current band members, the members of his pre-Danzig/post-Misfits band Samhain, and Doyle of the Misfits & does sets of material from all 3 bands. By the time I knew who Samhain & Misfits were, Danzig was on his 3rd solo album, so while it had the potential to not be worth the time/money, I figured I should catch it while I could if they were playing here. But by the time I went to bed on Friday night, I was glad that I didn't because Glenn ruined the set for everyone. Twitter posts & show reviews confirmed that Glenn probably wasn't feeling well since his voice was terrible the entire set (reviews from their previous set at Riot Fest indicate his voice was fine then, though), but because he made a big deal out of it he only had an hour-long set before park curfew forced him & his band to be silenced. Thus the crowd got Danzig & Samhain songs, but only 2 Misfits songs instead of the half-hour or so's worth they would've heard otherwise. Lame, yes? So had I gone I would've been pissed off about the money I would have wasted on the ticket. (Additionally, I was unable to watch the Danzig sets via pitchfork, as their feed for that stage had cut off & never came back up that night.)

Instead, V & I went on Saturday. We'd originally planned to take E with us, but reports of heavy dust blowing around the venue convinced V it was a bad idea. Fortunately my parents drove down to watch E, so instead we all went to lunch together & then left E with them. That meant a late arrival to the show, but E & my parents got along great (especially since they brought their 2 dogs, whom E showered with as many kisses as she could). We got down there in time to see Donald Glover of the TV show Community (one of our favorites), but hit a snag when they told V she couldn't bring one of her cameras in. Apparently they started a point-and-shoots only rule this year, so we had to walk the camera back to the car before we could go inside. Since there was no on-site parking, that wound up taking about a half hour & led to us missing his set. Bands we did see: Paint It Black, Kool Keith, Cave In, and The Damned, all of whom put on good/great shows. Heard a lot of talk about the Occupy Everything movement going on from various artists (all in support of it), and caught sight of actor Ryan Gosling who was in attendance (not a big fan of his or anything, I just thought it noteworthy that he was there). So we had a good time, though I think it's safe to say we most enjoyed being able to go out for several hours & spend time together without the little one to take care of.

Sunday I opted not to go. I decided that it would be best if I stayed home with E instead of having V's best friend watch her for us, so I told V to take her best friend instead of me. As I looked at the schedule for that day, there was only really one artist I truly cared about seeing (Henry Rollins) while V had several she wanted to watch, so it wasn't that big a deal to me. So V, E, and I spent the first half of the day together, and then I watched E until V got home from the show. They had a great time, & E & I did too for the most part. She didn't want me to put her to bed because she always wants mommy to do that, so instead we played until V got home & then E went right to sleep.

And I think that pretty much catches things up. We're flying out to Florida this week for several days to celebrate V's parents' 50th anniversary & see her family, and then it'll be a little over a week before Thanksgiving is here. Eek. For many years now I haven't been a fan of the holiday season, though I do enjoy all the free food. Heh. No, there are always moments I enjoy, but it's the whole commercial/shopping frenzy aspect I hate, and I doubt that having a kiddo will change that for me. If anything it may make it worse, though seeing her face light up on Xmas Eve/Day will definitely help me get over it. And on a related note I saw Santa at the local mall over the weekend, already set up & sitting in his chair waiting for someone to talk to him. Sigh. There really needs to be a worldwide agreement that NOBODY can decorate or sell items for Xmas until the day after Thanksgiving. It's bad enough seeing Xmas merch in stores before Halloween is over, but seeing Santa at the mall the first weekend of November and/or hearing Xmas music before Thanksgiving (which has happened) really irks me.

Well, I don't want to leave this on a downer note, so I guess I'll update you on my Listal lists since I haven't talked about them in a while on here. Shortly before I started my job, I put together several music lists...I made lists for what I feel are the best albums of each year from 2000 through 2009 (links to each are in that list), as well as a Hip-Hop showcase of the Hip-Hop artists that I like (of which there aren't many, or at least not many that are popular). And then I made a little movies rant list called Stop ruining my childhood jerks! which was fun since I rarely complain about things. Life's too short to do too much complaining. ;) And now I'm working on some other lists that I've started but am a ways off from completing. By the next time I post on here hopefully they'll be up.

All right, well, daylight savings has left me feeling more tired than usual today, so I'll make my way to bed. I almost went to bed instead of putting this together, but figured I should post while I wanted to....

Another delayed update

Haven't been back here for a variety of reasons, all of which I'll list quickly so I can get to bed...

1. I'm working now. Found a part-time from home job (about 16 hrs/wk) analyzing the content in website reviews. That means a lot of reading 4 nights out of the week, so once that's done I'm not much in the mood to read anything, especially online. Nevermind write anything of my own. The job is going well so far, and I'm getting the hang of what I'm doing pretty well now. We have weekly meetings which have been about 1/3 informative and 2/3 a useless waste of time. The upside is that I get paid for them, but sometimes I wonder if I should just start skipping them in favor of having quick phone calls with my coach. I may start doing that in the near future once I'm fully confident that I know what I'm doing.

2. The past few weeks were full of visits with my sister as her due date approached, and then passed by with still no baby yet. She finally gave birth last weekend to her son Chase Bryant, who was 8 lbs, 14 oz & 22 in. V went to assist with the birth, which didn't go entirely to plan but worked out well in the end. My parents drove down & stayed with us too, so we had company at the house on top of that. Neither of us got much sleep all last weekend, and spent much of this week trying to catch back up on it. So that was a factor too.

3. What little free time I've had lately has mostly been devoted to watching movies since I only have 3 nights a week I can do that now & it's become my favorite way to spend my nights after E goes to bed (especially when V falls asleep with her). Watching movies is usually followed by updating my Listal, though I've also worked on a few new lists during E's naps. If I remember/have time I'll drop back by & link them "soon."

Not much else I can think of to say at the moment. We're going to go over & see the new parents & baby tomorrow, which should be fun though probably cut short since I'll have to work. Oh yeah, and as of this moment the new Mastodon album has become my favorite album of the year (though I still have many I haven't heard yet). I've listened to it at least a dozen times at the link provided above in the past 2 days, & it keeps sounding better to me every time.

All right, sleep beckons.....

I fail at keeping this updated

I think the heading says it all really. Nearly 2 months have gone by now, and I haven't even opened this up to attempt to blog. Sad sad sad. It's not that nothing has happened...I guess it's more that I haven't been compelled to sit down here and write it all out. Well, the kiddo is sleeping right now, so I figure I'll give it a shot.

Speaking of the kiddo, she's growing and changing every day, as anyone who follows the baby blog, has seen us lately, or is friends with V on fakebook is well aware. She's on the verge of walking, she just needs that push to give it a try on her own. Not that we want her to rush into it, nor are we making any attempts to push her toward it. If she wants to wait longer, that's fine with both of us. Aside from that, her vocabulary continues to grow, she wants us to read to her several times a day, she's eating all kinds of food (mostly veggies and fruit, though she's had some small pieces of meat too and loves rice), and her comedic timing is excellent. Oh, and whenever we go out she's happy to be the center of attention.

Some of my favorite things she does: growls "papa", "mama", and "cat-cat" (often loudly); sits on her knees and dances (working on getting video of this); holds objects up to her head and says "hat?"; waves her arms up & down excitedly, especially when she has a toy in each hand & they go flying; occasionally pronounces the word "book" as "bup-k"; and she does this hilarious high-pitched squawking-like-a-bird noise, which is even funnier when she drags it out. All of those things make me smile if not laugh...we really have a lot of fun around here now.

Our fun may get cut a little shorter in the near future, however, as I'm back to job-hunting. I'm hoping to get something part-time since I REALLY don't want to give up being home with her, but if something full-time comes along that pays well enough I probably won't turn it down. Though I'll be tempted to pass on it just to keep as much time with E as I can get. :P

Aside from all of the above, we've had many social engagements over the past month. My sister stayed with us for most of a week, because she had various events to attend in Austin & didn't feel like driving an hour or so each way from her home every day (which is understandable since her baby will be arriving about a month from now). We went to Dallas for 4th of July weekend, but E was being a pain & wouldn't let us leave her alone or even put her down for long. That meant we only got to spend time with family, which isn't all bad mind you but it'd be nice if I could see some of my friends for a change. I miss them. Then this past Friday we went to a cookout at a couple's house that V met through Google+. They have a daughter too who's about to turn 4, and all 6 of us got along great. It was one of those rare occasions where you meet people for the first time and there's not a single moment of awkwardness, as if you've always been friends & just didn't realize it yet. Very very cool. We're looking forward to hanging out with them again soon!

Finally, I've been keeping busy on Listal (which may also account for my ignoring this blog). Last month I got on a kick of posting meme lists, based mostly off of existing ones that have made the rounds on the site. You've probably seen similar ones on other social networking sites, but the way Listal is set-up makes for a much more enjoyable experience I think than just reading typed answers. Anyway, I say "mostly" because there were questions on each of the memes that I didn't care for & therefore eliminated & replaced with my own instead. The "30 Days, 30 People" lists were the worst IMO, so I completely created my own version. You can check out ALL of my meme lists via my 30 Days lists list.

I also came across a wonderful list by another user called "Few things I love about cinema", which I loved so much I had to create my own (the original list is linked to in mine if you want to check it out too). It's currently the list with the most votes out of all the ones I've created, so I'm pretty proud with the way it turned out. I've also turned over my Netflix instant queue to Listal for the summer by letting them vote on which films I most need to watch. I'm not doing a very good job of going in order so far (mainly because the top film, Casino, is 3 hours long...when do I have time for that?), but I've seen more good/Great films lately than bad ones.

All right, well, she's awake so I'd better go take care of/entertain her....

Spain

The Spain trip was a blast! We all enjoyed it so much that none of us wanted to come back. Too bad we had to anyway. V and I have been posting about it on E's blog, and we've got more to say there coming soon. She took over 500 pictures, which you may or may not be able to check out on her flickr (see other blog for details on that). I still wanted to post some thoughts of my own here though, and so now I shall do just that.

Great things about Spain:

the sun doesn't set until around 10pm, meaning more time to go out & do things.

time doesn't matter - we rarely saw any clocks and if you're out for food/drinks nobody rushes you off your table to fill it with more customers.

if you're out, the main source of entertainment lies in the people you're out with. . .TVs aren't plastered across all the walls, and people congregate in parks just to hang out with their friends.

the food is both excellent and inexpensive compared to here, and doesn't taste like it came out of a package (veggies especially).

beautiful views in every direction.

the Metro - in Madrid it cost us 2 Euros to get from our hotel to the heart of downtown and back again, cheaper than any taxi, bus, or even the price of gas there & back.

the weather, at least while we were there, was never too hot or humid. . .there were warm days, to be sure, but they weren't oppressive in any way, and the nights were very nice & often cool.

they have these window-shades/shutters that block their windows and glass doors completely from all sunlight, which is great if you're sleeping during the daylight hours (and good for energy costs too).

on Fridays and Saturdays there are many places that stay open until 4am serving food and drinks & providing entertainment (even the malls).

I believe it's also common elsewhere in Europe, but everyone leaves work to eat lunch & siesta before dinner time. . .also, during the summer they shorten their hours but still get paid the same as if they worked their regular hours. . .I'm down with that.

to encourage you to return your shopping cart (or luggage cart at the airport) they charge you 1 Euro to unlock it from the others, then return your 1 Euro after you lock it up again. . . after seeing that DFW charges $5 for the use of a luggage cart I'm thinking Spain has the better way of doing things.

tipping isn't expected because servers are paid well enough to not need them.

the use of roundabouts instead of traffic signals seems to make for faster travel times.

if your Spanish isn't very good, it's not too difficult to find someone who speaks English (though I found that the longer I was there, the more Spanish that came back to me).

cellphones are not omnipresent - we rarely saw anyone on a cellphone, and the only time I saw someone texting they'd parked their car to do so.

forgot this one previously - unless you're in the downtown area, you can stop your car & turn on your hazards just about anywhere and that means you've parked. . .beats waiting for a spot to open up!

Not-so-great things about Spain:

motorcycle riders - basically from what we saw & heard they abide by none of the traffic rules, but if you're in an accident with one it's your fault somehow.

roundabouts, the rules of which I'm still not sure I've figured out.

driving in traffic in general, which often made me think of driving along the highways of Houston. . .how we didn't see more accidents is beyond me.

they're worse about billboards than we are.

if you want to sit outside for food &/or drinks and enjoy the wonderful weather, you have to endure smokers who seem to be omnipresent & travel in packs.

Rodilla, sort of the Spain equivalent to Quizno's except that everything is already prepared so you can't make any modifications to your order (all sandwiches drowned in mayo, which is no good if you're like me & can't stand that crap).

if there's a good radio station in Spain, I never found it (not that I like the radio in the first place).

Stradivarius, a store in one of the malls we were at which played awful electronic music that all had the same beat and must clean their store with some kind of perfume because the stench was overwhelming. . .I know other stores do that too, but it was the main offender & V & I regretted walking in there.

8 days wasn't enough to see all that we wanted to. . .clearly we need to go back. ;)

Other observations:

when it comes to food, the pig is king.

they don't believe in using carpet on their floors - marble and wood seem to be the top choices.

the younger people are the most likely to speak English - each time we asked our servers if they spoke English, they called over the youngest employee to assist us.

every mall has a full supermarket inside of it. . .kinda odd to be grocery shopping & look over to see a Claire's.

one mall had an area where you could ski, snowboard, or go tubing down a snow-covered slope inside the mall. . .crazy.

children are out with their parents at all hours, which I think is pretty cool especially since that meant nobody seemed bothered to see the 3 of us out at 2am.

customs wasn't as much of a hassle as we'd been led to expect; in fact, it went very smoothly on both sides & the only long wait we experienced was on arrival in Spain (which seemed to be due to our arriving shortly after the airport opened that morning).

On top of all that it was great to spend some time with Allie & her family, as well as cousin Alex, and we appreciated their willingness to take care of E sometimes so we could have breaks (including a much needed date). E's refusal to adjust to the time difference meant we missed out on some morning activities, but I can't say I had any complaints with being able to stay up late & sleep late the entire time. The schedule she kept us on felt like vacation to me. She was an awesome traveler, happy most of the time & making people smile &/or laugh by sticking her tongue out at them one minute and waving at them the next. She's so much fun right now. V & I managed to watch a few movies waiting for her to go to sleep while we were in Spain, & caught a couple in-flight movies while she slept on our way home too.

The only real downer of the trip was our final flight from DC to DFW, which I have deemed "plagueflight". Once we found the gate for our flight I noticed that ours was one of 4 flights scheduled to use said gate. They eventually moved one or two to other gates, then announced that our plane was in a hangar for "maintenance" and would therefore be delayed. About 2 hours later we were told they'd found another plane to take us instead of the one we were supposed to be on. I decided this was a good thing, because if our original plane was still being worked on then nobody should be traveling anywhere on it. So now we've been waiting 4 hours (so fun with a 9-month-old), and we finally make our way down toward the gate. . .at the end of which we go down some stairs, out onto the tarmac, and then climb the plane's stairs to get inside. At this point I've got a bad feeling, but I'm trying to ignore it by reassuring myself that this plane is still (somehow) better than the other one. Our seats are all the way at the back. More fun. Then as we're getting ready to take off, the woman across the aisle from me starts coughing. Then her daughter coughs. Then her husband, who's sitting farther up the plane from us. V & I exchange worried looks. After we're airborne and making our way toward DFW more people start coughing, and I figure out that about 1/3 of the plane has been coughing. At which point I'm thinking we've all been infected & am wondering how bad it's going to be. V has had a cough ever since, and my throat has been irritated (though it was most of the time in Spain too, so maybe it doesn't mean anything). E coughs sometimes too, but half the time she's just playing so who knows if she's really got a cough or not. So if you stop hearing from us, beware. ;)

And with that cryptic warning I'm off to bed.

where does the time go?

Has it really been over 2 months since I last posted on here? Doesn't seem right to me. Ah well...I suppose I've neglected to post because there's not much I've had to talk about. I could go on & on about the little one, but she's fully covered over here both by words & pictures so it seems a little unnecessary.

I can say that we no longer go out to eat with her, aside from Top Notch where we can all sit in the car and eat (similar to Sonic's set up, except the food is worth eating). We got tired of E throwing fits in restaurants, so we've agreed to avoid that situation until she learns how to behave better. She does just fine whenever we take her shopping, so it seems like she gets annoyed at having to sit in more or less the same place for however long it takes us to eat. Now that she's getting more mobile (regular crawling started this week), it's probably even better that we have the majority of our meals at home.

Anyway, aside from taking care of her I've spent my hours reading, watching movies, spending time with V when she's not working on her thesis (which is still ongoing), and creating lists on Listal. I haven't been to the theatre since Big Trouble in Little China, which was awesome (as was Maniac), and the only concert I've been to was the free one V & I went to during SXSW. We saw Trail of Dead and !!! play together, and it was great to be out of the house & at a show even if only for a couple hours. E has been keeping us from going out too much due to separation anxiety. When we leave her home with someone watching her she seems to spend most of the time throwing fits because we're not there. It sucks, but I know it won't last forever...looking forward to the day when we can start going out without her again.

Record Store Day is this Saturday, and I'm hoping we can get out for that one way or another. I know Waterloo Records is having the Toadies perform, which would be cool to see but isn't necessary. I've seen them more times than I can count, and the last time I saw them was on my birthday a couple years ago & they played all my favorite songs that night so I haven't wanted to see them since. If all 3 of us go, we'll probably need to plan it so we can miss any live music. I definitely have a few things I'd like to purchase, so that's my main priority.

Next month the 3 of us are flying to Spain for about a week! We've booked the flight and V & I have already received our passports. We ran into a slight snag with E's passport, but have got things in motion to get it completed. If they process hers as quickly as ours we should have it back around May 1st I think. It'll be all 3 of our first time out of the U.S. and we're extremely excited about it. I've only wanted to go to Europe for as long as I can remember, so I'm eagerly anticipating this first trip. We'll be staying with her sister Allie & her family while we're there, which will be awesome. We haven't seen Allie since E was born, and the rest of her family we last saw about a year before that. I'm not that concerned with the specifics of what we'll do there, as I'll be content just to check everything out. If we get to hit another country while we're there that'd be awesome too, but we'll have to see how things work out.

The only other news I have really is that my sister found out today she's having a boy. I told her she gets to have the boy that she wished she was when she was a child. She laughed but then thought maybe that wasn't so funny. Growing up she wanted to be a boy because she thought that was why I got to do more things than she did...she wound up being a tomboy, so that's always sort of stuck with her. Methinks this means she'll be a great mom to their little boy. ;)

I wound up declining the Pearson job mentioned in my previous post because they wanted me to work onsite full-time. I told them to keep me in mind for future projects, but obviously right now I can't do that (especially since what they would pay me won't cover day care costs). I can't say I'm regretting not being able to work for them either though. Taking care of her is the best job I've ever had, and rewarding far beyond any paycheck.

And I guess that's about it. As promised in my last post, you can now check out all of my "Best movies of" lists for 1977-2010 here. Also, I created a list for all of my music lists with links to each music-related list I have created. Last month I made a list of my childhood TV favorites, which was pretty popular, lists ranking the films of 2 of my favorite directors, Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam, and then my most recent list is of my favorite performances in horror movies. Check out whichever of those strike your fancy.

Sorry again for the delay...I'll try to do better in the future.

Aural pleasure and goings-on

Sitting here at the computer, ripping my CD collection into my new toy. V got that for me recently as a gift (as well as a couple t-shirts and a shower curtain/bathmat set I wanted from thinkgeek...I'm loved). Been meaning to replace my Creative Zen since it died last year, and since then I've primarily used a pair of small-capacity Sansa mp3 players. The Zen and I had a beautiful friendship...at times it seemed to read my mind and/or feelings & choose songs accordingly. Hopefully my Zune will be able to do the same. I've had a few occasions to use it so far, and while it seemed to play appropriate songs for a Sunday morning today the jury's still out on how synced we are. By the time I go to bed I should be about 1/3 of the way through my collection. I started this on Thursday. Hopefully I'll be done before the weekend.

Settling into the new routine around here. Most days I get E ready & take her to V's work for some mommy time during lunch. They're both enjoying it, and sometimes on the way home E looks like she's sad that we're headed back without mama. I was doing well on getting her into a nap routine, but then this past week screwed everything up. With it being so cold out V didn't want me taking E outside much (which was fine...I didn't want to go out in the cold either heh), so she came home for lunch 2 days last week & then worked from home on Friday. And so our little routine fell apart a bit, as E switched to short naps instead of taking longer ones. It'd be nice if the weather we had over the weekend would stick around (60s & low 70s for highs), but it looks like another cold front rolls through this week. So hopefully it just won't be as bad as last week so we can get back to the routine and get out of the house on a daily basis again. I think that as much as anything does us both some good.

Other news...my sister called me today to let me know I'm going to be an uncle. Her due date is the same as Vita's was last year, so it looks like she'll be having her first kiddo around E's birthday. Crazy! A year ago on Super Bowl Sunday we told my parents V was pregnant, then told my sister afterwards. She of course remembered & decided to do the same (though she called my parents yesterday). We're excited for her & her husband. She's even got an appointment to check out the birthing center where we went & wants to deliver there. And of course she'll be asking us for advice as needed.

Also, I was offered to work at Pearson again & I have accepted it for now. From the way the e-mail was written it looks like it's a work-from-home job this time around, but it also looks like the hours are set at 8am-4pm. So there's a good possibility that I'll end up not working for them after all. I'd like to do it, but if I HAVE to be available only during those hours then that'll be hard. I can't exactly ignore E for 8 hours every day. Waiting for more information now, but at least I know that I can walk away at any time & it's OK.

Beyond that, I've decided that I need a night off from the home responsibilities once in a while. So this week & next I've bought tickets to see films at Alamo Drafthouse that I want to see: Maniac! and Big Trouble in Little China. Looking forward to seeing both on the big screen, and having some time to myself (well, sort of...I mean, there will be other people there too I just won't know them). Considering doing one of their upcoming Pulp Fiction quote-alongs too, but haven't decided yet. I could easily do that...I've seen it enough times that the last time I watched it I was able to recite most if not all of the dialogue. And it's not like I haven't paid to see it multiple times in theatres over the years, so we'll see.

And speaking of movies, we've been catching up on those still. Feel free to consult my previously linked-to "Watched in 2011" list to see what I've watched. I've also uploaded to Listal my Best movies of 2010 list, as well as lists for 2000 through 2009, all of which can be accessed from my Best of 00s list if you're interested. At this point I've made similar lists for each year I've been alive (that'd be starting with 1977), and plan to upload them a decade at a time each Friday of this month. Once the 70s lists are up I'll also post the list I made collecting the links to all of them. Yeah, I've been keeping busy over on Listal heh.

I've also made a new music-related list of a personal nature, which has spent most of Sunday on the main page of the site. It's called Songs and what they mean to me. I consider it the proper follow-up to my previously mentioned "I was a preteen metalhead" list. As anyone who knows me well is aware, music's been a big deal to me for pretty much my entire life, so making personal lists out of the music I like is somewhat easy and completely enjoyable. I feel like between the 2 I've given some fairly extensive insight into my tastes & myself, so it may not be as easy to come up with another one. I'll have to wrack my brain a bit perhaps.

Other than all of the above, there's not much else to tell. We had dinner Saturday night at a former co-worker/friend of mine's apartment that was nice, and we've got a friends' wedding coming up to go to. The wedding falls on a weekend, so my parents will come down to take care of E for us. I'm hoping to squeeze in the Swans performance here that weekend too, but at this point if I want to I may have to go alone. Perhaps if I go out alone often enough I'll make some new friends with similar interests though. That'd be great.

And now I'm officially out of things to talk about. As you were...

Still alive

Been meaning to post here, but the holiday season kept me plenty busy. Thanksgiving & Xmas were spent in Dallas with my family, V's mom came out and spent a week with us, and the New Year's holiday was spent catching up on movies. I've watched about 15 films since New Year's Eve, and V watched most of those with me which made me happy since we hadn't watched many together in the past couple months. I've spent many a late night watching a movie or two while she & E sleep, which isn't a bad thing but having someone to discuss a movie with after it ends is always better than discussing it with myself. I've got a handful of films waiting to be watched before I post my best of 2010 list anywhere, but I hope to do so by the end of the month.

Speaking of lists, I've been making more of those on Listal lately. Feel free to check them out: Best albums of 2010, Most anticipated albums of 2011, and Watched in 2011. The watched list will be updated regularly throughout the year to document what films I watch this year, whether for the first time or a repeat viewing. It's something a lot of Listal users do, so I've decided to give it a try. I hope to use it as a springboard for other movie lists as the year progresses. The most anticipated albums list is a work in progress too...right now it reflects the information that's available, so as album titles & release dates are set I'll add them as well as any albums coming out I'm unaware of at this time.

I'm still enjoying staying at home with the little one. She seems to change every day, doing new things, being more vocal, and so on. She also seems more aware...I often catch her focusing on things she never did before, and since Christmas she's been touching my beard

whenever my face is close enough. I love it & am always willing to endure the risk of her scratching my face in the process (which occasionally happens).

Her favorite toy lately seems to be her feet, which she happily grabs and holds onto for long stretches of time. Next to them she loves anything she can fit into her mouth and bite down on, which has us expecting her to start teething soon.

She's never been keen on spending time on her tummy, so I'm making it my mission to make her do so a little each day until she realizes it's not so bad. I'm sure once that happens it won't be long before she works toward crawling. I'm also trying to read a book to her each day, which seems to only interest her when she's in a good mood. If I read to her after she's been playing a while she usually throws a fit in the middle of the book hehe. So far her favorite book is Pat the Bunny, which was one of my childhood favorites as well. I think mostly she likes that the book gives her things to do rather than just sit there & listen to me.

As for other plans for the near future, V will have to work full-time again soon...once that happens E & I will drive there to have lunch with her every day so they're not apart for too long. Already E starts getting upset if V's not home close to 4pm, as if she knows that's the time mommy gets home. I think she's too smart for our own good already. ;) Also, I'd like to take some computer classes at the community college in the near future. The job interviews I had last year taught me that I'm not as computer savvy as potential employers would like, so that's something I need to work on. Not sure yet when that will happen, but I definitely prefer taking classes over trying to teach myself especially when it comes to software I've never used. Finally, I may work for Pearson again on the TAKS test since they're planning to have a lot of employees working from home this year. I'll have to know more details before I decide.

Other than that, I guess there's 2 pieces of news I haven't broadcast here yet. First off, we recently traded V's car in for a bigger vehicle. The trips to Dallas taught us that we needed more room than the Subaru Impreza provided, so now we've got a Honda CR-V to get around in. I've done most of the driving so far and am loving it. Not only does it have more room, it's now easier to get E in and out of her carseat (big plus!) and the seats are more comfortable for me than the Subaru's.

The other news is that on Nov. 22nd V & I went out to dinner to celebrate a year & 1/2 together & she proposed to me. Despite her not giving me a ring, I said yes. We haven't set a date yet, because our main focus is on our honeymoon which we intend to spend in Europe. Once she has the time off saved up and we have the money to go we'll figure out when the wedding will take place. We don't plan on having any big ceremony, just a small service. I haven't been telling everyone because, well, it's not that big of a deal to me. Ever since I told her I love her I've been 100% committed to our relationship, and having a child together seems like a bigger & more important commitment than a wedding ceremony. I've said all along that I'm with her no matter what, and I don't need a ceremony or a piece of paper to prove it, which is also why when she found out she was pregnant last year I told her that if she ever decided she wanted to marry me she'd have to propose. I guess making it legally official is a good thing in the event something should happen to either of us, but beyond that... I don't know. Please don't mistake what I'm saying, I'm glad we're getting married (otherwise I would've said no, right?), it's just not the major event for me that it is for most people I guess. Being legally married won't change anything for me personally, except I'll be able to call V my wife in conversations. I'm more excited about us going to Europe, which is somewhere I've always wanted to go. Best of all I'll get to see it with her by my side.

A list that tells a tale

I've been spending a lot of my time on Listal lately, and those of you following this blog have seen me post links to it here. I can't remember now how I first stumbled upon it, but I joined the site so I could keep track of my music and movie collections (I've got my books on there too, but I was already using Goodreads for them). It's been a great resource for that, despite the fact that music-wise it rarely acknowledges lesser-known artists & albums. When that happens, I can sometimes add an album through a connection between Listal & Amazon, but if it's never been sold through Amazon then I'm out of luck.

ANYWAY, for the past year or so I've been creating my own lists of various things. Most have been movie-related, such as my favorite horror movies, annual best-of lists, and movies I hate. I've also posted my share of music-related lists, and there's one that I'd like to share here with you.

Behold: "I was a preteen metalhead". This list details my personal musical evolution, from childhood through high school with a glimpse at what has followed since. I've given a lot of thought in recent years about why I like the music that I do, which albums and artists had the most significant impact on my listening tastes, and this list has given me a means to deconstruct that and present it to others. I really enjoyed this process as it's led to a clearer understanding of where I've been, and I like that I can finally lay to rest the ongoing conversation in my head about my musical taste.

So far, the response to it on Listal has been very positive, and I hope it will continue to gain attention. I have plans for more music-related lists in the future, and any time someone shows interest in those lists I can always refer them to this one to provide a deeper understanding if necessary. And since my lists can be accessed by non-Listal users as well, I can share it with the rest of my friends too, though of course you can't comment on them without being a member. (If you'd like to join the site, let me know & I'll send you an e-mail invite to get you started.) So feel free to bring your comments back here after you've looked at it.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have household chores that demand my attention....

a few things

Back here again. Tomorrow will be my first day having Evie all to myself during the day, as V goes back to the office. She'll still be working part-time for a while, so it's not like we'll be home without her most of the day, but it's still a change and one I'm excited about. Our little girl is getting stronger every day, and she's making attempts to do more than just cry at us now. I'm hoping with her set of lungs being as strong as they are so far she'll be a scream queen some day...that could be cool. Anyway, it'll be up to me to keep her fed and happy during the day now...hopefully it'll go as well as I imagine. She's been really easy to handle so far, so if that continues I shouldn't have any problems.

This week in addition to watching her I intend to get some more boxes taken care of. There's a few in our garage I know I can find places for the contents of...won't be long and all that will be left are the things we want left in boxes in the garage. Since Evie tends to sleep a lot during the early part of the day, that should allow me time to get it done. That is, of course, if we don't both go back to sleep. Heh. We shall see what happens.

Also this week Evie has her first pediatrician appointment, so we'll see how that goes too.

And in addition to the above I'm still working my way through horror movies when I get the chance. If you want to check out what I've watched so far & my thoughts on them head over here. I've still got several left in our instant queue, and odds are I won't get through all of them (especially since I keep noticing ones I've overlooked & adding them). Along with the ones in the queue, the annual Halloween movie marathon is this weekend and on Halloween no less. Since I'm no longer in Dallas where it's usually held, we're trying something different this year. Tommy will have at least one person over at his place, while V & I will be at our place. We'll all watch the same movies at the same time & text our comments & thoughts between us. I still have no clue which movies we're watching though, so hopefully that'll be determined in enough time for us to acquire any movies we don't already have access to. If it all works out as it should then a good time shall be had by all.

Guess that's about it for now. I'll most likely check in again next week. Until then...

a long-delayed update

A lot has gone on in the past few weeks, beginning with moving into our new place. We hired movers, and the whole process took a little longer than we'd anticipated. Fortunately though, they managed to transport all of our belongings safely. We're now mostly settled into our new home, and it's taken a couple of weeks just to get this far. Funny, we were excited about having more space and now that we're here we've already agreed that we could use more than this. Oh well, it'll work for the time being. Hopefully we won't overload the place too much too quickly.

Don't get me wrong though...we're loving our new place. Quiet neighborhood, friendly neighbors, more space to maneuver around our belongings, a kitchen that both of us can be in at the same time without bumping into one another, a yard to hang out in when the weather's nice (which it has been lately), plenty of space to have guests over...all good things. We could use a bookcase or 2 still, and we need to figure out what to do with some things that have been sitting in boxes for unknown amounts of time, but we'll get it accomplished. Especially now that I'll be at home full-time.

That's right, no more temp job. It really wasn't working out anyway. I like the people, but being forced into crummy projects got to me. Plus, even if I wanted to stay, there's no alternative shift for me to work. And after looking into day-care costs, it's just not feasible for V and me to work similar hours, especially for no more than I'd been making. So that brings me to being home, which I'm excited about. I'll keep my eyes and ears open for late-night or work-from-home opportunities, and if I find something, great. But if not I'll gladly stay home with our little girl and take on a full-time job working for her. I believe that'd be a teaching/culinary/entertainment job...looking forward to getting some practical experience in all those areas.

Oh yeah, back to the moving thing...after the movers did their part, we still had to clear some things out of the old apartment. The following week, I was ill. Nothing serious, congestion and cough mostly. At first I chalked it up to allergies, what with high pollen counts and the dust regularly flying around as we packed and unpacked and so on. But if it was solely allergies, then it may have progressed into a sinus infection, as this past Friday and Saturday I ran a fever. I seem to be better now, though the cough continues to linger...fortunately it's nowhere near as bad as it has been. I've been self-medicating, and it seems to have worked. But over the now week-and-a-half that I wasn't feeling well it was difficult to do my share of unpacking and such. I'd do a little and have to rest for a bit before I could move on to another task. Sucked. So yeah, that slowed down our progress a little.

Add to that the fact that V's now working from home part-time, and both of us juggling the little one, and that slowed us down even more.

Yet somehow we managed to pull off having the place looking great by the time my parents, sister, and brother-in-law rolled into town this past weekend. (I give V most of the credit.) My parents stayed overnight and watched Evie while V & I hit up a pair of post-ACL shows. V won us tickets to see The Black Keys, and I'd bought us tickets to see Sonic Youth. Both bands were better than the previous time I'd seen either of them, though The Black Keys were merely OK this time instead of completely dull, and Sonic Youth were simply more enthusiastic this time around. Neither show was Amazing or especially memorable, but I enjoyed both of them. I especially enjoyed spending a night out with V and not having to worry about Evie the whole time.

And I guess that brings us up to speed. Now that it's October, I've got a slew of horror flicks in our instant queue to watch. So far I've only managed 5, but I'm hopeful I'll get through most if not all of them between now and Halloween. Slowing me down on that front is the fact that the fall TV season has started up, and we've got a bunch of shows to watch now (not to mention having just begun watching season 1 of Damages this past week). Which shows, you ask? Those would be: Bored to Death, Boardwalk Empire, Big Bang Theory, House, Community, Weeds, and in V's case Mad Men, which I admit I'm still far behind on (still lingering back in season 1). I think that's all of them. So yeah, lots to watch on top of caring for our baby girl and being entertained by her. Funny how she can't do much of anything and yet still manages to keep us enthralled with what little she can do.

All right, that's it for now....

The birth of Evie

Vita recently posted to the baby blog a detailed account of the birthing process, plus some pictures. For those not following it already who may be interested in checking that out, go here.

In other news, we signed the lease on our new place today. It'll be great to get out of this crummy little apartment and into a nice, spacious 2 bedroom duplex. We'll be moving toward the end of the month, so we'll be plenty busy between now and then! The new place is a little further north from where we are, in a nice quiet neighborhood. As an added bonus, it's right around the corner from a handful of restaurants we like to eat at on a regular basis.

OK, off to eat some lunch....

I'm officially a Dad now

Evelina Michelle was born at 3:07am on 8/27/10. She measured 20 inches and weighed 7 lbs 4.5 oz.

We were at the birthing center for about 12 hours before she arrived. V gave birth to her naturally and her sister Allie & I coached her through it. We also had some help from the midwives who took vitals when necessary, checked V's progress regularly, and gave her instructions on how to push when the time finally came. The whole experience was mind-blowing and tiring for all of us, and the end result is the most beautiful baby girl I've ever seen (I may be biased). One of the midwives pronounced her as perfect, and none of us could dispute her...I also thanked her for giving us a professional's word to back us up.

As you can probably tell from the above pictures, I'm totally in love with her and proud that I could be there throughout her birth. I'm also extremely proud of V for giving birth to her completely naturally the way she wanted to.

Expect more in the near future...I just wanted to post something while I had a chance.

P.S.--It's been brought to my attention that the comments haven't been working. So I changed the design again...hopefully now they'll work.

deconstruction

As I approach the day when my first child will enter this world, and I think about it more and more, something major concerns me. OK, maybe you wouldn't think it's a major thing, but I do.

I'm scared that my child (and other children of mine that may follow) will never experience mystery when it comes to music.

Growing up as I did in the pre-Internet days, the amount of information available to me about music artists (among other things) was limited. I could experience music firsthand by listening to the radio and the albums my family & friends possessed (or gave me). If I wanted to dig deeper into a certain band or artist, I could thumb through magazines or read the occasional newspaper article. Later on, when my parents broke down and got cable I could watch MTV and get more information through videos and interviews. Once I could drive, I could go see a band perform a show. At each show, I might find other bands I liked as well, depending on whom the band I liked was touring with. Otherwise I could find new bands to listen to by picking up an album with interesting artwork on it, or one I read an intriguing review of.

And then the Internet came along and ruined everything.

It didn't happen overnight, of course. But as the Internet grew I could talk to people all over the world about the bands I liked. I could search a variety of websites for news and interviews. Then as artists began fully embracing the web & using it to promote themselves and give fans more access to them, the mystery began to fade out. Now it's almost non-existent.

Don't get me wrong, I see the upside of it too. Now we can all listen to bands we previously would never have heard of, thanks to sites like Pandora and Amazon, through recommendations based on similar tastes. If you're stuck in a nowhere town with crappy radio stations and an absence of live music venues, and you're unable or unwilling to move to a major city, the Internet can provide you with all the music you'll ever need. It can approximate the experience of being at a concert (though it's never anywhere nearly as enjoyable). It can let you bond with others who share your tastes when you're surrounded by people who find your personal tastes to be weird compared to their own. And of course, we all have the option to turn off our access at any time. But many of us don't turn off our access; in fact, it seems we gravitate to the Internet when we have nothing else to do. That's one reason it's so popular to have WiFi connections for cellphones and laptops. Carry your escape route with you at all times.

So now you can find out what your favorite artist had for every meal of the day, whom they're sleeping with, their interests beyond the music they create, and so many other unnecessary details it's difficult to keep track of them. It's led most artists to a point where their fans see them as no different from themselves. The star quality is fading. The mystique that bands like The Doors, Alice Cooper, and Tool once used to lure fans in is rarely present among today's artists. The few bands who seem able to employ an otherworldly air today also remain obscure (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum comes to mind) instead of growing a following of music lovers simply because they're "different." Being inaccessible is now a liability instead of an asset.

And my children are about to enter this world where every musician is just another dude or grrl. They'll see what artists actually look like and know their life stories and idiosyncrasies before they've even had a chance to listen to the music beyond the track they downloaded for free or heard on Pandora. Even if I make a conscious effort to instill an attitude of exploring the music first and avoiding the truth behind it, that doesn't guarantee I'll be successful. We can only point others in the right direction; we cannot force them to walk that way. Hopefully though, if my children are passionate about music I can convince them they don't need to find out whatever they can about every artist. And there's a slight possibility they won't care anyway and I won't need to encourage them one way or the other.

Of course my children will be surrounded with the music I've acquired over my lifetime. When they reach certain ages, I know that I'll hand them the albums that I fell in love with around the same age. Certain albums simply define adolescence and transcend temporal boundaries, and hopefully they'll appreciate them (that too, of course, cannot be forced). And my kiddos will have the advantage of having parents with diverse musical tastes, which I think their peers will encounter more often as well. One of the things that's great about the Internet explosion is that we all have access to every genre, sub-genre, and category you can or can't think of. Hopefully if that goes on long enough all music will melt together into a genre-free existence. We'll simply agree that it's music, and either we like it or we don't. There'll be nothing more to discuss.

Especially after the Internet's been exhausted providing you every detail about the musicians.

New & improved!

First off, as you've already noticed, I changed my design. Feel free to tell me how much you love it. ;)

More importantly, my unemployment is soon to end. At V's recommendation, I hooked up with Kelly Services, the agency that landed her with the company she continues to work for today. I went in this past Monday for some paperwork and took some tests, and they hooked me up with a data entry job starting July 6th. I've been told it's a long-term position, but not how long that means. Of course, the best thing about being hired through an agency is that if I decide I'm not happy there, I can ask Kelly to find me something different. But for now this job should be good enough. It sounds pretty stress-free, the hours are close to what I've been working (8-5), and most of all it means having a steady paycheck again. And with Baby E on the way, the LAST thing I need is to continue drawing unemployment.

Anyway, I wanted to share the news now that it's official. Now I should get some sleep. This is the final weekend of the bowling tournament in Austin, and it's going to be a busy one.

Bands I've seen live

I'm sure I've forgotten some, and Listal doesn't recognize many bands I thought of (especially ones that were never on a major label), but here's my list of bands I've seen live. Just in case any of you are interested.

sitting out the dance

Well everyone, I am no longer employed. This past Friday was my last day to play with the TAKS test, and now I'm taking an unscheduled "vacation" until I find another job. I suppose I should have found a job sooner, but they didn't let anyone know whether they would still be working there until last week, the same week that our current project ended. So a last moment notice doesn't leave one with much time to make other arrangements. Fortunately, I still have the bowling tournament to support me for a few more weeks, which should cover my bills for now. Also, I applied for unemployment, which will further help me survive financially for the time being.

So now I get the benefit of sleeping in during the week, and having a (hopefully very short) break from work while I look for something else. Send all positive thoughts, prayers, and so forth my way as I certainly need them.

As I think I mentioned before, ideally I'd like to find a job I can work evenings/nights and stay home with Baby E during the day while Mommy V works. The trick is finding one that will cover my share of bills & expenses, but I'm optimistic (as usual) about my chances. I'm trying to be patient about it.

Other than that, there's not much news to tell. I FINALLY made it out to a show over the recent holiday weekend to see Denton's mighty Brutal Juice here in Austin. I went alone, as it was an outdoor venue & Mommy V doesn't need to be surrounded by secondhand smoke, but I had a good time all the same & it was good to see them again, especially since for all intents and purposes they're broken up. Tomorrow night I'm seeing Screaming Females, next week I'm seeing Sage Francis, and beyond that any other shows will of course depend on whether I have the money and/or a job by the time they roll around.

We DID order tickets to see the Pixies here in Austin in late September, and we're determined to make it to the show...the trick there will be finding a sitter for Baby E. Surely someone will be kind enough to watch him/her for a few hours while we take a night off to see Doolittle played in its entirety. Surely.

And I guess that's all for now. I leave you with a recommendation: go to your local bookstore, or visit Amazon, or head to the library and pick up any book by Joe Meno. Any of his novels will do, as they are all more than worth the time spent reading them. I just (this afternoon) finished his latest, The Great Perhaps, and I'm still reeling from it, pondering it, feeling its impact inside me. It's an amazing work about, well, many things, but primarily the choice between fight or flight, as seen through the experiences of a family of five in 2004. I'm a big big fan of Meno's work, and I'm trying to share it with the rest of the world...so yeah, go pick that up.

OK then...

for all things baby-related

You will want to head over here: http://giraffe-baby.blogspot.com/

V created that especially for our friends & family, and we'll both be posting to it. The blog also contains links to registries and photos and all sorts of good stuff. Go check it out.

not that anyone asked

Been a while since I last posted...this blog continues to suffer from a severe case of anti-computer sentiment on my part. While I am no longer suffering through a shitrain of horrible essays at work, I am still reading student responses at work, 40 hours a week, and those run the gamut of utter crap to average to highly entertaining. I'm sure the state would be horribly dismayed to hear that the entertaining ones are all from students who refuse to take these questions seriously, but that's the truth of it.

Add to that the fact that my weekends have, of late, been spent photographing lady bowlers. Yes, the state bowling womens championships are held in Austin this year, and it turns out I used to work with one of the dudes in charge of photography during the tourney. So he extended an invitation for me to work for him and I agreed. Which has meant 16 hours per weekend taking pics, uploading them to a computer, cropping them, printing them off, & placing them in frames to be sold. I also have the dubious privilege of gluing the frames together (they're cardboard) and so at present I have a box of them to put together before this weekend gets here. I'm sure it'll arrive sooner than I expect. I suppose I could be doing that now, but instead here I am. Really though, the bowling gig has been mostly fun so far, and essential in helping me maintain my bills. I am thankful for it.

Other than that, well...the giraffe baby continues to grow steadily & spends a lot of time dancing around these days. We have confirmed the baby is ours by its big feet. That picture is from a few weeks ago (maybe a month now? Jesus has it been that long?) so hopefully the feet won't get so big that the baby gets hung up on the way out. Heh. And we've taken to referring to our child as Baby E, due to the fact that regardless of gender the baby's name will have the letter "e" somewhere in it. Ah yes, let your speculation begin...

And that brings us up to the most recent events. This coming Saturday, V and I will have been together ONE YEAR. If you'd told me at this time last year she'd be pregnant now I would have laughed hysterically. And yet here we are, and we're both very happy of that fact. Normally, we'd go out this weekend and celebrate, but as luck would have it I have photography work this weekend. So instead we celebrated this past weekend. Saturday we went to UT to check out the Our Body: the Universe Within exhibit, which was like a crash-course anatomy lesson with actual human samples. Infotainment! Dinner Saturday was hibachi-style Japanese food, which was Tasty. I dig the musicality in their food preparation even more than the visual spectacle it is. Yesterday, aka Sunday, we slept in, then went & got full-body massages together. And now I'm addicted and want to go once a month. Heh. I felt so much better afterward, and I'm hoping regular trips will help work out the knots I've built up over time. Beyond that, we mostly relaxed and enjoyed spending time together without any obligations. We both needed it.

And now we're back to the grind, such as it is. She started a new job at her work, and they rolled out the red carpet for her today. I take that as a good sign. She'll be doing technical writing work now, and I know she'll be awesome at it. Meanwhile I'm looking for a new job because lord knows this one won't last me much longer. So that's fun. And I've got bowling photography now through the end of June at least, with one more possible weekend gig in July. We shall see.

OK, that's it for now. I'll be back when I have more to say...

still alive & kicking

Greetings lovely readers. Just thought I'd drop by long enough to let you all know I am alive & well.

Haven't spent as much time online as I used to due to work. When you spend 8 hours a day reading essays of varying degrees of quality on a computer, the last thing you want to do is hop online and continue looking at a computer screen. Hell, most days I don't even want to read my book when I get home. Instead I've been passing the first few hours after I arrive home during the week playing with V's cat Toby, doing household chores, starting dinner, and/or watching the occasional movie. By the time dinner is in progress (if V cooks, and she typically does) and/or eaten I'm finally willing to subject myself to a little recreational computer use before I make my way to dreamland. Which pretty much leaves me the weekends to hop on here, but since I moved to Austin we've found plenty to keep us busy on the weekends without having to turn the computer on.

There have been movies to watch (both in theatres and at home), walks to take, necessary shopping excursions, outings with friends, and meals to eat at a variety of local establishments. The options for food consumption in Austin are Awesome...so many great places that aren't major chains. I could list them all, but I'll refrain as I'm already itching to be back off the computer again. Just know that the majority of non-home-cooked meals we consume come from local businesses (some of whom get their food from local producers), which is the way it should be.

I'd like to tell you that we've been to a bunch of shows since I've been here, but that'd be a lie. Not that we haven't wanted to go to shows, just that either a better offer for entertainment comes up, or we're too tired to catch a late show the night of, or in the case of SXSW it just doesn't work out. We wanted to hit up some free shows during SXSW, but the first problem there was that many of them took place while we were both working. Then we wanted to go to the Mess With Texas festival, but we came to our senses & realized that trying to get downtown during both SXSW and rush hour on a Friday was a Stupid idea. So then we thought maybe we'd show-hop on Saturday, but when we woke up to find the temperature had dropped into the upper 30s we gave up completely. Maybe next year will be better, but I won't hold my breath.

Anyway, that's all I have for now. V should be home from school soon, so I'm going to spend some quality time with her before I crawl into bed and pass out.

P.S.--Bought 3 new albums this month...the new Liars album I haven't fully formed an opinion on because I've only had the opportunity to give it one spin & I was distracted at the time, but I didn't hear anything I disliked so I'm assuming it's Amazing. Also picked up the new Daughters album, which is blissfully noisy & I'd be disappointed if it were otherwise. The other album I picked up was the new Gorillaz album which I was very disappointed with...I liked a few songs on it, but the rest were Terrible...hopefully through repeat listens the album will grow on me, but I know I don't like it as well as the previous 2 albums. We'll see....

Shows I may go to this month

3/16 - Hank III & Assjack @ Emo's

3/28 - Cursive (opening for Alkaline Trio *yawn*) @ Emo's

...I completely forgot that Scout Niblett was in town last night. Not that I probably could've stayed awake for the show anyway.

And yes, I'm aware that SXSW will be going on between the above dates, but I don't intend to attend any of it. I may find my way into one of the off-site house party shows, but I can't see the sense in purchasing an expensive wristband that doesn't guarantee my entrance to any of the official shows. Most likely V & I will avoid making any trips in the general vicinity of downtown Austin during SXSW...too much chaos to endure methinks.

Other shows in the coming months:
4/15 - Murder By Death @ Emo's (I'm sensing a trend here)

6/10 - Rev. Horton Heat w/Cracker & Legendary Shack Shakers @ Stubb's (mostly for LSS)

6/15 - Sage Francis @ Mohawk