Life In Austin

28.1.04

Yes, yes. With new job comes new do. Mrs. Austin sports her best new look of 2004. I'd go into who the stylist was and the clothes she was wearing, but I'm currently a cross between a comic book fanboy and a bigfoot so don't look for any tips from me. I like the new do, I told her so, as well as all her coworkers. Done and done. (If you haven't figured it out yet, click the "web page" to get a better view.)

A little before the folicle follies, the trio had made it's way to Zilker, as mentioned previously, well here are the photos. As you can see, it was chilly for Austin, a nippy 45?. This morning wasn't better, at 35?. A brisk jog at 5:30am is a heck of a way to start the day, at least it's not Detriot.

So we fed the birds. Then we headed over to the springs and fed the ducks. Then back up to feed the birds. Toward the end it was getting pretty brisk and Little Miss Austin had devolved into a girl/cat and ended up just chasing any pigeon that was white.

We're also in Chinese New Year. At least, that's what her school told us. I'm not Chinese so I don't know for sure, but I should know because I fancy myself a worldly guy, knowledgeable of all things cultural. But alas, the request to wear red snuck up on me. In her lunch box was a treat we found later than night. All the kids got red envelopes with characters on them, characters I'm guessing that have something to do with it being the year of the Monkey. In the envelopes there's suppose to be money, but being 2, what good is money, so they had little chocolate in foil coins.

Remembering this very late, I gave LMA her envelope while Mrs. A was reading to her. We opened them and LMA knew immediately that it was candy. We made a deal that if she went to sleep right then, she could have the candy in the morning, and we put the coins on her night stand. Well, this morning rolls around and we find all the foils are open and there's chocolate on LMA's face and some on her bed. Little stinker. I guess that's why she was so quiet last night, sneaking candy.

This will remind my parents of me hiding chocolate syrup under my bed.

We also went to the Children's Museum. That was pretty fun. Nothing like walking into a building and turning to your toddler to say, "Ok, go have fun. We'll follow." We did, then had dinner, then hit a book store. It was a grand evening. LMA loved the Children's Museum, so much so that we had to promise a toy at the gift shop to get her out of there with minimal breakdown.

Superbowl is this weekend, I will be watching for a 2nd installment of the Rubberband Man Office Max commercial. I couldn't even tell you who's playing or the names of any of the players. I do know that the Colorado Avalanche are in first place OF THE ENTIRE NHL! Not the Pacific West, not the West, the entire league. This is exciting news. I'm excited, are you? Yeah, admit it. You are. You're a closet hockey fan. Superbowl is on Sunday, but I know you're just dying for the NHL All Star game and the playoffs. That's when real athletes show up.

On a side note, did you ever get a piece of news, or talk with someone and get a story that you could absolutely nothing with? Ever have a phone call or get an email and the person says, "Now, you can't tell anyone this, but..." I'm currently involved in this. I wish I could talk with someone, other than Mrs. Austin about this. I told her, she's excited for me, but it's news that really only applies well within my little outter family clique. No offense to Mrs. A at all, she's as excited for me as I am about her political opportunities or her going back to class, which is to say very excited, I just wish I could brag a bit, show off that I have information that very few others have. It differentiates me from the drooling fanboys.

Eh, I better stop there.

20.1.04

New stuff

Yep, she'll have Trump's job in no time.

All the waiting and nail biting is over, Mrs. Austin finally got the promotion she's been looking for. It's not really a promotion, but it's not a transfer. It's a little of both, actually. She got into a new team that will offer her a bit more cash while it's new, plus instead of large corporations her clients are schools and medical facilities, so there's the high moral value as well. We're all very happy for her.

Nothing else really going on. School has started up for Mrs. Austin again, Lil Miss Austin is still going to school, and I'm still trying to do my comics. We're all either working or not home or trying to do something on the weekends that doesn't involve watching Law and Order. But in reality, all we're doing is watching Law and Order. This last weekend we went to Zilker again to feed the pigeons and ducks. It was a little chilly so we were all bundled up, and there weren't a lot of folks there, but the people that were there had brought their kids to feed the birds.

And whoever thought up this Atkins regiment (I guess that would be Dr. Atkins) should be horsewhipped. For those of you who are considering it, let me ask you a few questions. Do you like juice? Do you like chewing gum? Do you like chocolate or coffee or milk or a nice hoggie roll? Too bad! You can't have any! No sandwhiches, no noodles, no ketchup, no salsa! You can eat meat, cheese, eggs and about 40 vegetables that no one's ever heard of. That's it. I don't know why I'M on it, I'm the pasta/chocolate/toast king. I need sugar and chocolate in my coffee. I need Macaroni and Cheese. I need a Chuychanga with sour cream!

And that's why I also need to lose 20-25 lbs.

So on top of running I chose to alter my diet even further and give it a jump by doing Atkins. Mrs. Austin has been VERY supportive during this trying time, even allowing me a small relapse to see if my wooziness and lack of focus was because I was physically deprived of things I was used to, or my head was so pissed that I couldn't have a Coke that I made myself sick. (Now that I think about it, I'm still not sure which one it was.)

You have GOT to give me more SUGAR! These jumping jacks won't do themselves!

Daddy, what exactly is ammortization?

Some times, it's cold enough that you need to share.

The pregnancy is going as expected, we have another visit today, normal stuff, but so far all is well.

Actually, that's a bit of a simplification. It's going well in the way a land war in Asia is going well. The baby is doing fine, the mommy is, how shall I put this, out of sorts. I won't delve into matters more than that, but suffice it to say it's been stressful.

Meanwhile, Lil Miss Austin is being just the same ol' hyperkenetic, percocious little ragamuffin. She's become very good with cleaning her room and helping clean the house. She likes to feed the dog and, recently has discovered how to use the pump for the hand soap to get copious amounts of liquid clean all over the sink. She's very proud of this last bit, wanting to show us how clean the sink is. She still doesn't want to sleep, nap or sleep in, but she's 2. About the only thing she doesn't want to do is get up for school. I think I'll develop a new tactic on trying to wake her up at 6:30 on a Saturday and tell her it's time to go to school, then head back to bed myself, assured that I will now have another 90-120 minutes of bliss before she figures it out.

She's also taken a leap of speach in the last few weeks. It'd been months while she toiled away on such banalities as what color is the banana and how many trains are there. Suddenly her vocabulary increased to include such words as "yet" and "only" and "because." Because was the big one. Just yesterday I asked her if she like the names Ainsley or Cloe for the new baby (don't worry, we don't know what it is yet) and she said, "No, I don't like Cloe." "Why is that?" I asked. "Because Cloe makes me mad." (Ainsley makes her happy, I don't know the distinction on that.) The point is, even though it sounds both cute and depressing, she used "because." Before when asked "why" anything, she'd say, "Um, dunno." So this was huge. She's also using more averbs, which I think is probably the hardest grammatical pollen grain to grasp. She's starting to grasp time as well, events that have happened or may happen. She knows that "tomorrow," "in two hours," and "soon" all pretty much mean the same thing, but they are different from "yesterday" or "last night."

It's a big move approaching 3, and it's fun to watch. She's running more solidly, can put her clothes on by herself, can get clothes out of the drawers just by asking and can do all the bathroom stuff she needs. Lately we've been putting her cups on the lower shelves and she can get water from the door of the fridge or juice boxes and snacks from in the fridge. She's almost totally self reliant and it's wistful and melancholy.

Oh, and she and I measured her feet yesterday, her's are 5 1/4" and mine are 8 3/4"

11.1.04

Love you sis.

2.1.04

Rose Bowl Madness

You know, just when I thought I had a handle on Mrs. Austin, she does something completely unexpected. Something so monumentally out of the ordinary, it's both frightening and amusing at the same time. Just more reasons why I love her.

She cries at parades.

Now before I get hogtied for my prose, let me clarify by saying she cried at seeing her High School's marching band perform in the Rose Bowl parade.

Still not convinced? Ok, she cried because she was in this marching band in high school.

*sigh*

The high school I'm talking about is Permian High School out of Odessa, Texas. Ah, now I see the nods of understanding.

You see, in Odessa, since the gas and oil boom have pretty much dried up, there's basically one thing left in the town that defines it; high school football. There's Odessa High School (OHS) and Permian High School (for some reason MOJO is used here as well, but I can't find where this came from.) Permian was apparently the third school in Odessa, OHS being one of the other two, the other I don't know. But, the rivalry was between OHS and Mojo. The rivalry was so intense that Permian High's parking lot stop signs were black and white so as not to match OHS's school colors of red and white.

Yeah, that's what I said.

So anyway, Mrs. Austin was a flautist in the Panther's Marching Band. A band, by the way, that has gone 40+ years with what amounts to a perfect score for Marching Band along with other performing band areas. Mrs. Austin's brother was in the band as well. The school, indeed the whole city, was centered on football and the band and anything involved with them. If you look at the Mojoland website you can see it's primarily about football. I'm sure in doing a search for Permian High School Drama, the only thing you'll find would be a commentary on the movie Varsity Blues.

At noon after a blissfully lazy morning on New Year's Day, a shock of realization went through Mrs. A's brain and she flipped the channel to the Rose Bowl parade and started the digital recorder. "Permian was going to be on in the first half hour of the parade," she said wistfully.

"So why are you recording it now?" I asked, knowing I was stomping on sacred ground.

"Just in case," she said with a tilt of her head like I can imagine an astronaut's wife might look when commenting on going past the 3-minutes of radio silence upon re-entry.

Sure enough, the last band to be seen in the 2004 Parade of Roses was none other than The Permian/OHS Composite Marching Band. 400 plus members all told. They were the largest band in the parade. They played some song that suggested that even though they wore composite uniforms and marched under a combined name, Permian was the major force being represented. Tears flowed, hearts jumped into throats, phone calls were made. I sat quietly sketching my superheroes patterned after the forces in quantum mechanics and wondered just what I'd gotten myself into 7 years ago.

27.12.03

Merry Solsmastivus

The magic of the holidays this year has been transposed from one child to another. The feelings of anticipation and wonder and joy have now infused a younger heart. Lil Miss Austin is well aware of who Santa is and that he brings presents. It'll be a while before she understands the meaning of Christmas, whether they be pagan, christian or commercial reasons. At this point all she knows is that she has presents to open and toys to play with.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The holiday actually started before December 25th. LMA's school had an International Night. Not to be seen as Scrooges for avoiding any kind of holiday party, but being comprised of children from nationalities that may not recognize Christmas, the school did a very interesting thing and put together an International Holiday Night. The children were encouraged, but not required, to come representing a country. Being the 1/8th Italian that I am, I decided Italy would be a safe bet. I wanted to do Canada, dress her up in a little hockey outfit, but you also had to bring a dish and I didn't think LeBats Blue would have been wise at a school function. So we went with Italy. You can't really tell from the photo, but she's supposed to be a gondola pilot.

And let me tell you, these school functions are just a MAD house. First off, the herding of the kittens began shortly after we arrived as the teachers attempted to coral the kids onto the stage so they could sing...maybe shout...the three songs they had to push through. The microphone was given to a couple of the older students to "lead" the children in song. Most of the kids were just flapping their sandwich board flag signs around, or hitting each other with their hats. One little gentlemen with the microphone was obviously destined to be the next Rage Against the Machine lead singer. The whole night was a bit unnerving and eventually Mrs. Austin requested we leave before she take a life.

With any family that has new children, there are also grandparnets. With every marriage, there are also in laws and parents. With every Christmas, there is always a visit. With us it's either a drive to Conroe, Texas or a flight up to Colorado. This year we stayed in town because of Mrs. Austin being pregnant and we had gone to CO last year. A quick 3 hour drive later and we're in Conroe. All the family is there and this time we were the last to arrive. We got there just in time to see the Santa on the JetSki, apparently an East Texas tradition. I have no idea. We hung out for a bit, crashed at the hotel and returned the next day well rested and ready to start ripping into the presents. (I'm not overly sentimental or religious, can you tell?) Mrs. Austin's family and mine differ usually, but I can pin point one aspect for you today. There will be crying on Christmas! It happens every year. One person gives someone or a group of people a gift and the tears flow like Niagara. I was guilty of it one year; Mrs. Austin got me a playstation when I first moved here and the thought alone made me weepy. I knew she hated video games, so it meant a lot. But these people are just masochists. They're purposefully out to make someone cry and it's usually family oriented, meaning the two of us that married into the family are left looking at each other and saying, "So, uh. Wanna go smoke?"

But it was a good trip and after a fine dinner the three of us headed home. Christmas Eve arrives (keep in mind, Solstice was on the 22nd, so the rest of this is for the Catholics) and we find Mr. Austin working a half day at his lovely job. The market was open on both Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas. The reason for the day after is the market can't be closed for 4 days in a row. See, you learned something today, good for you. So after my token appearance at work during which I got real good at Diamond Mine, I came home to find Mrs. Austin geared up for a new holiday tradition. This was something I'd heard about, but had never been involved in, unless I was 3 and my parents did it that one time and I just don't remember, that doesn't count. She wanted to make a gingerbread house. Yeah, that's what I said. A what? You mean, to eat or just make? (I'm clueless.) So we did our best, she made the structural parts and I assembled the candy. We got some frosting and graham crackers and went to it. Well, while it was a complete hoot to do, I'm just glad we don't work for HUD or something because we suck at building stuff. Unless it comes with little interlocking pieces and instructions, I'm in a fog. After a good bit of eating candy and frosting, the house just caved in on itself. We put it outside for whatever birds or cats wanted it. Good foundation of knowledge for next year.

The big day was at hand. This year I could feel the roles reversing from child to parent. I was no longer welcoming the sweet glow of the Christmas tree as I crept into the living room to see what Santa had left. This year was mostly about LMA, but a good deal was to see if Mrs. Austin liked the gifts I got her. So we stayed up late putting LMA's new bed together and moving gifts under the tree. The next morning LMA slept unusually late, but seeing as she's not quite 3 years old, I don't think the anticipation has worked its way into her system yet. She's been thinking Santa had been to our house for about 2 weeks, so she still has that temporal thing to work on. So just like my dad before me, I put on a bathrobe, made some coffee and started looking under the tree for things to hand out to people. It was a good time. Mrs. Austin started to feel a little under the weather so the rest of the day was kinda dark and medicated, but it was still jolly.

Now I have to work on thank you cards and shopping for some more stuff. One bit of the holiday I like is that immediately after December 25th, you have a guilt free day of going and buying anything you want, even if you got all you wanted for Christmas.

Yeah I'm a merchandise whore, I love having things. So what.

19.12.03

May Your Holidays Be Filled With Magic.

16.12.03

Cruisers Unite

Before I get into the recap of the cruise I'd like to throw out some old pics for our viewers and some side stories.

As you know, LMA had some weird thing with her leg. She's fine now, mysterious ailment that it was, was probably nothing more than a muscle pull. However, she did feel pain and had enough toddler sense to figure that stickers made her feel good, so they should make her leg feel good. We left out all thought of a bath, seeing as she'd had a traumatic day as it was, so we let her fall asleep on the couch and moved her to her bed later, leaving her "sticker-cast" in place.

We can rebuild her, we have the stickers.

Next on the agenda is the Moon Tower Christmas Tree in Zilker Park. At one point, in the late 1800's, there were several dozen of these Moon Towers; over sized street lights about 5 stories tall. There are only a few left standing in Austin. To commemorate the holiday season, the Zilker Park Moon Tower is strung with lights like a big tree and people gather around and under the lights and have a little party. Nearby, but not open when we went, is the Zilker Park Trail of Lights. It's a big deal and having been here just over 3 years we've only now decided to go. We probably won't hit the trail of lights again this year, we gave it the one shot and they had the nerve not to be open. Well, we'll show 'em.

A Rave does not seperate generations.

The experience was one of medium size city trying to be a small town. There was funnel cake and hot chocolate and some music. There were your token christian school kids singing all the carols that had God and Jesus and Angels in them, which was nice background music. There were a lot of little kids and young at hearts looking up at the spiral of lights from under the "tree" and spinning around making the spiral optical illusion complete, then falling on their butts. LMA made a friend in a little girl and her unusually young mom and they did several rounds of Ring Around the Rosie. A short carraige rider later and we were off.

And finally, LMA has figured out how to take pictures. She can also take them of herself. Yes, we take so many pictures of her and the family that you only have to point a camera at her to get a well rehearsed "Cheese!" The fact that she's taken several pictures that have turned out is shocking and frightening and a little hilarious. As an experiment we gave her a camera and told her to take a picture of the Christmas tree, which she did, after a few dozen takes. Turns out, the self portrait on your right must have been a fluke, but how amazing that she was able to recognize a camera, know where the shutter button was and have the vainity of a supermodel to be drawn to it in the first place. Did I mention she did this when we were sleeping? I'm glad she didn't have the camera pointed elsewhere, morning dude issues and all. Yoiks!

Cheese!!

Okay, don't forget where we parked.

Now onto the reason why you're all here. To find out how soused I got on our cruise to lovely Cozumel. That is why you're all here right? Ok, well for those who haven't left already after your weekly LMA fix, Mrs. A and I dropped Mrs. Squiggles off at Grandma's house and hit the Gulf. We left Galveston at 5pm Thursday and we in open waters by that evening. The ship was the M/S Celebration on the Carnival cruise lines. M/S stands for Mother Ship, apparently. I would have preferred Flag Ship or The Honorable Vessel or Dingy Extraordinare, actually. Anything but Mother Ship. Trust me, once you see some of the fine folks partaking in this activity, you'll understand why a cultish icon generally uttered in the same breath as Heaven's Gate is not far off.

I digress. The trip was amazing and expected at the same time. There was very little glamour involved, as I thought there might be. I mean, it's a cruise for Pete's Sake, aren't they supposed to be fabulous and full of intrigue and midnight rendevous and tuxes and ball gowns? Ours had some of that. We looked pretty fabulous going to dinner one night, I was intrigued at the amount of liquor I drank, there was a midnight buffet and I do believe the maitre di wore a tux. Don't get me wrong, we had a great time, but it wasn't the cream of the crop that I was bumping elbows with as the sea cast us fore and aft, it was the people I just left at HEB.

So with our expectations dropped from Breakfast at Tiffany's to Slingblade, we proceded to go with the flow and mix it up with the rest of the cruisers. We learned the Cha Cha, played trivia, bought Carnival imprinted souveniers that labeled us severe tools and ate as much buffet as possible. The 24 hour pizza stand was top notch to have around after a day of slamming Long Island Iced Teas. We did get to dress to the 9's and attend an evening dinner. Our waiter was outstanding, even while he and the other staff of varied nations did their best show routine in the middle of the dining hall. At our table was a couple from Oklahoma (boo hiss) and a family from about 10 minutes from our house. No fooling. We're 400 miles in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico and we're sitting with basically neighbors.

So we make it to Cozumel, which is an island off the Yucitan Penninsula, near Cancun and Playa del Carmen. It's only 3% developed and that's almost entirely for tourism. There's a small bit that's an ecology park, but you can tour it so let's say it's ALL tourism. So a big ass boat full of drunk American's pulls up and it's go time for these purveyors of all things tour. First thing we do is find out that while you're pregnant, the only thing you can do on this island is shop and snorkle. Mrs. A was crushed that all the activities didn't have child carrying members in mind, and if you don't like haggling over jewelry and trinkets, you might as well stay on the ship and play Bingo. We did get to snorkle a lot and I did a Sea Trek Helmet Diving thing (which Mrs. A thinks sounds like a gay porn movie.) Afterwards we hit, of all things, a Carlos 'n' Charlies (yeah we have those in Austin) and I drank a YARD of Long Island Iced Tea. Man, after that Mrs. A could have bought the island and I wouldn't have cared.

Head back to the boat and the rest of the day and a half until returning home is a blur of buffet eating, semi interest in ship's events, being a little sea/home/child sick and having our day interrupted by the Saddam thing. Nothing brings you back into reality like a little news from the front. If it wasn't for the fact that the "local" stations were from Nashville and New York, I would have been able to believe I was truly out to sea.

Heck yeah I'd do this again. I'd like to do it when Mrs. A's not preggers so we can both drink and scuba and ride horses and drive jeeps and drink and play with dolphins and drink. Reason I mention drinking so much is that when you're sense are heighted due to child carrying, a sip of alcohol turns into "You're OOZING with BOOZE! Go take a shower!" But we got back safely. LMA missed us but had a good time with her cousins and Grandma.