Moving on

I wrapped up the mural project today with a couple more hours in East Austin. I hadn't realized it until recently, but there are no Dairy Queens in North or Central Austin. I'd seen some in South Austin, and when I came across one on the east side today I stopped for a Blizzard. I hadn't had one in months, maybe even a year or more. I used to have one a week when I lived just down the road from a Dairy Queen in DFW.

I left a little too late this afternoon, so the sun was too low in the sky for optimal pictures, but since I only came across two sites today it wasn't a big deal. The worst part was that the sun was in my eyes when I was driving. I'll have to get to work on the website soon, but I'll probably put it off until after the folks come down for a visit this week.

Gettin' into the groove

Last week, samba; last night, salsa. We went to Copa's downtown, and there was quite a crowd. There was a short lesson before hand, which didn't cover all that much, but it was only $5 and got you in without a cover, so it was worth it. I can't say I got it down on my first night, but I did all right. I need to learn how to lead better apparently, since J said that's what makes it a lot easier for the woman, and she was having more trouble reading me than the others she danced with.

New activities

Just got back from my second Round Rock Express baseball game. I've had free tickets from work both times, but this was a lot more fun than the first game I went to, when they were playing an exhibition game agains the Houston Astros. That time I didn't get inside the stadium until the 7th inning, while this time I got to my seat by the time they started the Pledge of Allegiance.

Dell Diamond is a really nice stadium, but it certainly feels small. We came close to getting beaned by no less than 4 foul balls in about ten minutes near the end. Tonight was also better because the Express won, instead of getting creamed by about ten runs.

The soreness I avoided after dancing last week caught up to me after capoeira and roller skating Tuesday night. I hadn't been on skates in years, and it took a couple of hours for me to get comfortable on them again. For some reason, it's always two days after I overexert myself that I get sore, rather than the next day. Anyways, I've been limping around today, but I know the exercise is good for me and I hope I keep it up.

Getting closer

Did another two and a half hours of driving around East Austin this afternoon, photographing murals and learning the area. I think I've got one more day's worth to do before I call it a wrap. Then, I'll have to design a website, shrink the photos, and buy a domain name to post them at.

It's an open question whether I'll continue the project in the future for South Austin, or any other part, but there are quite a few murals very close to where I live that I'll likely shoot just to have them.

Dancing the night away

Last night, I ate some superb Middle Eastern/Indian food at Ararat, then went dancing at a relatively new Brazilian club called Casa Brasil. Both are really close to where I live, and I'd never been to either.

I've never been much of a dancer. I had the common experience of stiff backed, back-and-forth, slow dancing in middle and high school, which mixed with headbanging as grunge gained popularity in the early '90's, and morphed into the white guy shuffle in college. I never cared much for it unless I was at least slightly tipsy, since that gave me the courage to ask women to dance or just sidle up next to them and hope for the best.

But last night was very fun. A young lady invited me to meet her there for the weekly live Brazilian band playing on the back patio, and we learned to samba, although she already had some experience. We started off simply watching other dancers, then got some amusing instruction from an older gentleman who kept interrupting us to improve our form. He couldn't take the hint once we got the hang of it, so we retreated to the back of the dance floor for a while.

I knew dancing could be pretty strenuous exercise from past experience, so I expected to be sore today, but so far so good. Unlike the time in Dallas, when I could barely walk the day after some drunken dancing at a bar, accompanied by my buddy L. You know you're out of shape when....

Arrgh

You know, sometimes I'm pretty impulsive. For instance, when starting this blog I just pulled a name out of the air and used it. Later, it occurred to me to see if lostinaustin.com was available, and what do you know - someone was already using it (although I just checked it, and it must have changed hands in the last few months). If I had bothered to check beforehand, I could have chosen something I knew was available as a domain name and picked it up.

Well, I've been working on this mural project for something like three months now, and it just occurred to me that I might not be the first one to think of this. Sure enough, it's been done (or at least something pretty similar). A photographer named B.J. Smiley Goins started documenting the murals of Austin years ago, and even published a book. Sigh.

I'm not saying this has been a waste of time by any means, but as a writer I've had the same experience in the past. You have an idea, someone beats you to it, then it's old news, or worse, superfluous. Actually, my original idea for the murals was somewhat different. I was interested in how they were used as advertising by local businesses, sort of advertising as public art. There still may be something to that, but regardless, I've gotten to know the city so much better by doing this that it was worthwhile for that experience alone.

Good movie

I saw a really good movie this week called Primer, about two inventors who wear ties to work in one of them's garage. They're engineers trying to come up with something to sell that excites them, and end up with more than they bargained for.

This movie was shot in Dallas in the summer of 2001, while I was living in the area. Ironically, that summer I was driving down to Austin most weekends to film my short film Covet.

Primer's a really good example of great storytelling making a small film bigger than it has any right to be. It actually kept me up at night, screwing with my head, which almost never happens anymore. I highly recommend it for a rental.

I lost my shirt in Las Vegas

Although, I didn't look for it all that hard either. It was the shirt I bought on South Padre Island a couple years ago. The decals were starting to fall off and crumble. Oh well.

I left the tables about $40 in the black. Roulette can be really fun.

I got way too drunk at the pool, baking in the sun and doing jello shots, Saturday afternoon. However, this means I slept through the $130/plate dinner for the bachelor, so I'll call it a wash.

This experience was pretty much the polar opposite of my last trip to Vegas. I don't know yet which I enjoyed more, but this past weekend was a blast. Too bad getting home proved so difficult. As one of my compatriots put it, this trip never seemed to end.

Vegas, baby!

I'll be leaving tomorrow for another go at Las Vegas, this time as part of a bachelor party for a coworker. If you'd like to read about my first stay there, see here, here, and here. This weekend is sure to be a hell of a lot different from those three days in February 2004. For one thing, on my previous trip I was traveling alone, whereas this time I'm flying out with half a dozen guys I know.

There's a series of skits Ben Affleck did on one episode of Saturday Night Live spoofing the ads for Las Vegas with the tagline, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." That was some of the funniest stuff I've seen on that show.

Wish me luck.

New stove

We finally got our new stove yesterday, after months of waiting. The guys who brought it in took one look at our old stove and laughed. It dated to probably at least 30 years ago. It was obvious that square of kitchen floor hadn't seen the light of day in many moons.

Our new stove doesn't have a pilot light like the old one did, which is a plus. When you turn the burners on, there's a clicking sound for a few seconds, then voila, flame. I've never used this type of stove before, so I hope it's as good as it looks. It even has a light you can turn on and off inside.

I know, nothing to get too excited over, but compared to what we had to work with, this is very good news.