Return to Austin '09
Long enjoyable weekend... now done.
*smiles*
last_bastion hit the tarmack to visit Austin over the weekend. It had been more than a year sinc we'd been there, which we figged to be a bit too long. So we dropped a line to noeticist, who was kind enough to give us sleeping space and cart us around the area for a few days.
We saw friends.
We ate quite a bit of food in that social setting way.
Raen visited the Alamo... finally.
We gamed.
We saw movies.
And we missed our flight.
(More on that last part later).
Overall, it was a great trip. It was nice to be an area again where a phone call results in a table for eleven at lunch. Though we have made headway in the friends department in Denver, it just hasn't been as smooth as the friends process was in Austin.
We did, however, discover that cheat week should never be cheat _week_. It should always be cheat _day_. Eat like your friends eat normally one day every once in a while without worrying about points? Sure... that works. Eat like your friends do normally for a _whole week_ and you may suffer full on body rebellion. This is what happened on the day when we combined sausage and buiscuits with gravy, doughnuts, and pizza. But... we did score awesome Indian!
The visiting of the Alamo was an entertaining experience. Its funny how you could quite literally miss the monument to Texan tenacity reasonably easily. We wandered around it, read information attached the walls and artifacts... and accidentally found ourselves across the side street from it listening to Phil Collin's voice telling us about how the battle went down. Yes, that Phil Collins... who eivdently has an Alamo Room in his French home. Quite the enthusiast it would seem. Little side shop that we accidentally walked into? Worth quite a bit more than the actual Alamo information on what happened... as the presentation takes the time to point out the various buildings with lighting and then carries you through the timeline of Santa Anna's attack on the fort. So... if you ever head for the Alamo to visit... look for The History Shop. Right around there, there's the $1, thirteen minutes history lesson narrated by Phil Collins that's well worth the money. :)
On the movie front, we got to see two... Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and Wolverine.
I recommend Ghosts for anyone who enjoys Matthew McCone... um... yeah... that name, or movies about that ass-to-chicks guy eventually getting it in the face... and then coming out a better man for it. *smiles* I found it cute, in that feminine faerytale kinda way. Certainly not a waste of my time for some of the scenes in it.
Wolverine... I'm sure some people will have dissected better than me. Without throwing around spoilers that people don't already know... I went into the movie expecting it to be ass. It was actually better than I thought. There were a couple of plot threads in it that could have been handled much more delicately... thus creating a much more smooth flow to the plot... but instead they attempted to shove those elements into our throat like we might not swallow them any other way. Also, I felt like the addition of Gambit was completely contrived. They could have fixed it very easily to make his addition fit smoothly into the story, but they were so busy cramming other elements down our throats that they screwed that one up as well.
Lack of even one use of the line, "Mon ami..." complete fail. Hugh Jackman and Leif Schweiber playing off of each other as Wolverine and Sabretooth... so full of awesome that I can't fully address it. So we'll say the movie was entertaining but could have been much better in different hands.
The only downside to the whole trip was the strange circumstances that lead to us staying in Austin for an extra evening. *smiles* We officially joined the limen club when we went heading for the airport thinking that one time was our departure... only to discover thta we were wrong. We missed our flight by, oh, say... about 3 minutes. Just a little earlier, and they could have held the plane for us.
Oh well... *smiles* It just meant that we hung out with noeticist and his lovely lady a while longer and got to watch Perfume... a very strange movie.
Tonight... I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed.
Yay for small and simple pleasures.
Raen.
*smiles*
last_bastion hit the tarmack to visit Austin over the weekend. It had been more than a year sinc we'd been there, which we figged to be a bit too long. So we dropped a line to noeticist, who was kind enough to give us sleeping space and cart us around the area for a few days.
We saw friends.
We ate quite a bit of food in that social setting way.
Raen visited the Alamo... finally.
We gamed.
We saw movies.
And we missed our flight.
(More on that last part later).
Overall, it was a great trip. It was nice to be an area again where a phone call results in a table for eleven at lunch. Though we have made headway in the friends department in Denver, it just hasn't been as smooth as the friends process was in Austin.
We did, however, discover that cheat week should never be cheat _week_. It should always be cheat _day_. Eat like your friends eat normally one day every once in a while without worrying about points? Sure... that works. Eat like your friends do normally for a _whole week_ and you may suffer full on body rebellion. This is what happened on the day when we combined sausage and buiscuits with gravy, doughnuts, and pizza. But... we did score awesome Indian!
The visiting of the Alamo was an entertaining experience. Its funny how you could quite literally miss the monument to Texan tenacity reasonably easily. We wandered around it, read information attached the walls and artifacts... and accidentally found ourselves across the side street from it listening to Phil Collin's voice telling us about how the battle went down. Yes, that Phil Collins... who eivdently has an Alamo Room in his French home. Quite the enthusiast it would seem. Little side shop that we accidentally walked into? Worth quite a bit more than the actual Alamo information on what happened... as the presentation takes the time to point out the various buildings with lighting and then carries you through the timeline of Santa Anna's attack on the fort. So... if you ever head for the Alamo to visit... look for The History Shop. Right around there, there's the $1, thirteen minutes history lesson narrated by Phil Collins that's well worth the money. :)
On the movie front, we got to see two... Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and Wolverine.
I recommend Ghosts for anyone who enjoys Matthew McCone... um... yeah... that name, or movies about that ass-to-chicks guy eventually getting it in the face... and then coming out a better man for it. *smiles* I found it cute, in that feminine faerytale kinda way. Certainly not a waste of my time for some of the scenes in it.
Wolverine... I'm sure some people will have dissected better than me. Without throwing around spoilers that people don't already know... I went into the movie expecting it to be ass. It was actually better than I thought. There were a couple of plot threads in it that could have been handled much more delicately... thus creating a much more smooth flow to the plot... but instead they attempted to shove those elements into our throat like we might not swallow them any other way. Also, I felt like the addition of Gambit was completely contrived. They could have fixed it very easily to make his addition fit smoothly into the story, but they were so busy cramming other elements down our throats that they screwed that one up as well.
Lack of even one use of the line, "Mon ami..." complete fail. Hugh Jackman and Leif Schweiber playing off of each other as Wolverine and Sabretooth... so full of awesome that I can't fully address it. So we'll say the movie was entertaining but could have been much better in different hands.
The only downside to the whole trip was the strange circumstances that lead to us staying in Austin for an extra evening. *smiles* We officially joined the limen club when we went heading for the airport thinking that one time was our departure... only to discover thta we were wrong. We missed our flight by, oh, say... about 3 minutes. Just a little earlier, and they could have held the plane for us.
Oh well... *smiles* It just meant that we hung out with noeticist and his lovely lady a while longer and got to watch Perfume... a very strange movie.
Tonight... I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed.
Yay for small and simple pleasures.
Raen.