Weekend Update
Lets see.
Friday. I bugged out of work early and went to the movies. I saw The Core and Bulletproof Monk. I have now developed a strong crush on Seann William Scott. You may now mock. I have reinforced my crush on Aaron Eckheart. After the movies, I went and got more movies and Vietnamese food. Of course, when I went to get the food, Ric was there, and we chatted for awhile. Richard, the bartender, gave me free apple martinis, and I gave him a huge tip for my food. I went home and watched The Craft and Evolution.
Saturday. Zapata and my mom came over, and I ended up somehow giving both Relampago and Zapata baths. Neither one of them were happy about it, so we ended up taking them to the Black Labrador pub for lunch. The day was beautiful, and my sister and my father joined us on the patio. Claudia left to go to the San Jacinto Monument to watch the annual reinactment (this year, they let women in). (I think she missed it, because the ferry had too many people in line to go see it). My father was restless, and he wanted to buy a digital recorder, so he and I went to Circuit City and Best Buy to compare and contrast TiVo and ReplayTV. We were probably there for a few hours, going over every feature. He ended up getting ReplayTV because they have the "fastforward through commercials" feature. Not that the man watches commercial television, but "just in case". At the same time, we were lusting over televisions. I want a widescreen TV, and they're finally coming down in price. I saw a Samsung 30 inch tube for $999, though my heart really wants the Panasonic 40 inch projection LCD that was just amazing picture quality. I've found it for $2000, but I just can't justify that kind of money. After our purchase, we took the stuff back to my parents' house, where the dogs were. My mom and Jose were there, and we played with the dogs while my dad started rewiring his TV. Finally, my parents had a thing to go to, and Jose was dropping me and Relampago off at my house. We decided to go eat, and after much searching (criteria: patio and no mexican), we ended up in a new place called Rivendell (yes, after LotR). It was excellent. I had a wild mushroom ravioli with asparagus and crabmeat that was almost, but not quite as orgasmic as the gnocchi that willagurl ordered in that little Italian restaurant in St. Helena the last time we were there. My brother had the filet mignion, and we both got out of there at about $25 a piece. Good food, good company, and our friends Angelbert and Paul ended up joining us at the end. I was going to go home, but my brother persuaded me to go to a party at a friend of his house. We first went to my brother's house so he could change. This is a big thing. I've only been in his house once since I've been back in Houston, and that was at the invitation of his roommate back in August. I had to go pee, and my brother informed me that I could only do so if Maddie's bathroom was available. He strictly forbade me from going anywhere his room or bathroom. Apparently things were that bad. Fortunately Maddie's bathroom was free. The house itself wasn't as bad as I thought it would be--there was mail all over the dining room table, and the kitchen needed a good scrubbing--but I've been assured that the bedroom is where the disaster really is. Apparently things have gotten so bad that my brother is going to have a party sometime soon so he has no choice but to clean. Anyhow, he changed, I peed, we got some wine to take to the party, and we took off. It took us a while to get in, because the buzzer wasn't working right. The party was in this cool mixed use building, retail, commercial and residential. The guy who lived there was moving to another place very nearby that was cheaper. He moved in the previous year, under a great rent deal, because Enron had just happened and a lot of people couldn't afford to live there anymore. In the intervening year, Andersen went down, and the rest of the place was a ghost town. I figured that the apartments were maybe 40% occupied. Lofty, recent construction, very cool, but too expensive to people to live in in post-Enron-Houston. The rent for this tiny place was more than my mortgage, taxes and insurance. We hung out there for a few hours, and since the guy was another architect, we ended up talking architecture. We ended up leaving around midnight thirty, because my brother had to get up early and go rowing the next day.
Yesterday was fairly lazy. I woke up, and I decided that I needed to run some errands. I got to Ikea at 10, but the sign said they didnt' open until 11. So I went to Smith and Hawkins, which didn't upen until 12. So I went to a coffee house and Relampago and I hung out on the patio there reading and writing until noon. We got back to Smith and Hawkins, didn't see anything we needed, and then went back to Ikea, which was packed. After looking at the TVs, I wanted to see if my Ikea modular stuff could be expanded to fit a wider screen TV. Of course, they're discontinuing the model, so i'll have to find something else if I get a widescreen sometime in the next few months. I ended up buying Zapata and Relampago some sheepskin rugs and myself a few aluminum flowerboxes. I took the rug to Zapata, discussed vacation options with my mother (she and my father are going on vacation in a few weeks), and then went home to work on my yard a bit. I decided to get some boiled crawfish for dinner, and got home at about ten.
Friday. I bugged out of work early and went to the movies. I saw The Core and Bulletproof Monk. I have now developed a strong crush on Seann William Scott. You may now mock. I have reinforced my crush on Aaron Eckheart. After the movies, I went and got more movies and Vietnamese food. Of course, when I went to get the food, Ric was there, and we chatted for awhile. Richard, the bartender, gave me free apple martinis, and I gave him a huge tip for my food. I went home and watched The Craft and Evolution.
Saturday. Zapata and my mom came over, and I ended up somehow giving both Relampago and Zapata baths. Neither one of them were happy about it, so we ended up taking them to the Black Labrador pub for lunch. The day was beautiful, and my sister and my father joined us on the patio. Claudia left to go to the San Jacinto Monument to watch the annual reinactment (this year, they let women in). (I think she missed it, because the ferry had too many people in line to go see it). My father was restless, and he wanted to buy a digital recorder, so he and I went to Circuit City and Best Buy to compare and contrast TiVo and ReplayTV. We were probably there for a few hours, going over every feature. He ended up getting ReplayTV because they have the "fastforward through commercials" feature. Not that the man watches commercial television, but "just in case". At the same time, we were lusting over televisions. I want a widescreen TV, and they're finally coming down in price. I saw a Samsung 30 inch tube for $999, though my heart really wants the Panasonic 40 inch projection LCD that was just amazing picture quality. I've found it for $2000, but I just can't justify that kind of money. After our purchase, we took the stuff back to my parents' house, where the dogs were. My mom and Jose were there, and we played with the dogs while my dad started rewiring his TV. Finally, my parents had a thing to go to, and Jose was dropping me and Relampago off at my house. We decided to go eat, and after much searching (criteria: patio and no mexican), we ended up in a new place called Rivendell (yes, after LotR). It was excellent. I had a wild mushroom ravioli with asparagus and crabmeat that was almost, but not quite as orgasmic as the gnocchi that willagurl ordered in that little Italian restaurant in St. Helena the last time we were there. My brother had the filet mignion, and we both got out of there at about $25 a piece. Good food, good company, and our friends Angelbert and Paul ended up joining us at the end. I was going to go home, but my brother persuaded me to go to a party at a friend of his house. We first went to my brother's house so he could change. This is a big thing. I've only been in his house once since I've been back in Houston, and that was at the invitation of his roommate back in August. I had to go pee, and my brother informed me that I could only do so if Maddie's bathroom was available. He strictly forbade me from going anywhere his room or bathroom. Apparently things were that bad. Fortunately Maddie's bathroom was free. The house itself wasn't as bad as I thought it would be--there was mail all over the dining room table, and the kitchen needed a good scrubbing--but I've been assured that the bedroom is where the disaster really is. Apparently things have gotten so bad that my brother is going to have a party sometime soon so he has no choice but to clean. Anyhow, he changed, I peed, we got some wine to take to the party, and we took off. It took us a while to get in, because the buzzer wasn't working right. The party was in this cool mixed use building, retail, commercial and residential. The guy who lived there was moving to another place very nearby that was cheaper. He moved in the previous year, under a great rent deal, because Enron had just happened and a lot of people couldn't afford to live there anymore. In the intervening year, Andersen went down, and the rest of the place was a ghost town. I figured that the apartments were maybe 40% occupied. Lofty, recent construction, very cool, but too expensive to people to live in in post-Enron-Houston. The rent for this tiny place was more than my mortgage, taxes and insurance. We hung out there for a few hours, and since the guy was another architect, we ended up talking architecture. We ended up leaving around midnight thirty, because my brother had to get up early and go rowing the next day.
Yesterday was fairly lazy. I woke up, and I decided that I needed to run some errands. I got to Ikea at 10, but the sign said they didnt' open until 11. So I went to Smith and Hawkins, which didn't upen until 12. So I went to a coffee house and Relampago and I hung out on the patio there reading and writing until noon. We got back to Smith and Hawkins, didn't see anything we needed, and then went back to Ikea, which was packed. After looking at the TVs, I wanted to see if my Ikea modular stuff could be expanded to fit a wider screen TV. Of course, they're discontinuing the model, so i'll have to find something else if I get a widescreen sometime in the next few months. I ended up buying Zapata and Relampago some sheepskin rugs and myself a few aluminum flowerboxes. I took the rug to Zapata, discussed vacation options with my mother (she and my father are going on vacation in a few weeks), and then went home to work on my yard a bit. I decided to get some boiled crawfish for dinner, and got home at about ten.