Lovely Cora.

My friend and host in Morrisville.

Cheers to the Churches for raising such a stellar pooch.

One or More Things I Did Today (Monday in Austin Edition)

And Let It Be Known, that on July 25th, in the year of 2 thousands and 11, I was up to this:

• Hey, this whole catching-up thing gets easier with each post!
• So, let's see what I've got in the memory banks...
• Hm, no, that's a past life...
• That one, too...
• And that's a Michael J. Fox movie I saw when I was 9...
• Wait...
• Ah, no - that's a telepathic impression from the dude sitting next to me at Starbucks.
• Well, dang!
• Oh, might have something here...
• Yep, bingo. These things actually happened to me:
• Woke up.
• Um, don't remember much about the rest of the day. I imagine I ate some lunch at some point, as I often like to do that on Mondays.
• Really, the first solid memory was meeting up with a high-school chum I hadn't seen in a decade.
• It was great to catch up with Ashley. She looked and sounded great, a life in full bloom. And after hanging out, she was kind enough to ferry me east to "The Fabulous White Swan"*.
• "Fabulous" is something of a relative term these days, apparently.
• Usually, a Monday night in Austin would lend itself to a visit to The Fabulous** TC's***.
• Tragically, TC's was, as of a week prior, no more. And apparently White Swan was the successor for the diaspora, so to there we went.
• Good to see all y'all: Ky and Sue, Paul and Kate, Cory, Liz, Kelsey. In short? Wrecking crew.
• And so we danced and drank Lone Star and Stone IPAs.
• And we chatted.
• And when we left, we found Paul's window had been smashed out and his glove compartment sacked.
  
• Seems those piles of broken glass I noticed like prairie dog mounds on every street from I-35 to White Swan were telling us something.
• Picture of the day: I'm failing here.

As they say, "It was a Day".

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*Or something like that. Honestly, all I remember about this place was the corner it sat on, which happened to be the corner that featured a robust crack trade that we'd pass every morning while driving to Junior High. 12th and Chicon, stand up!
**Ed's note: Italics added.
***What can I say about TC's? And institution. A movement. And something I can't squeeze into this edition of One or More Things I Did Today. Maybe I'll write about this place later, because it deserves a eulogy within this blog.

Planking Across America: From the Archives, Planking SF Pt.1

California,

The Golden Bear State, rival to Texas and Alaska in the big-and-populous-state categories, land of Gold's Gym, home to 4 NBA teams, motherland of many of my best buds, She of Berkeley and Beverly Hills, of Bill Walton and Huey Newton, home to lots of fruits and fruit of geological antiquity, replete with fault line, Yosemite-d up, and, most importantly, an impeccable canvas for planking.

Planking Across America.
A two part installment from my June and July visit to San Francisco

Their Eyes Were Watching Planking, Photo courtesy Beef Reavey

When you plank the pride parade, you better be prepared to be upstaged

I'd like to dedicate these two S.F. planking photos to my pal Shelly Kamboj. Peerless hostess, better half of Brian, and fan of beers, Shelly also has a mother that invented Indian food*. Shelly, thanks for the fun. This plank's for you.

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*Conjecture. Claim may not be accurate.

One or More Things I Did Today (Trip to Grandma's Edition)

And Let It Be Known, that on July 24th, in the year of 2 thousands and 11, I was up to this:

• There we go. See? This whole keeping up with the bloggin' thing ain't so hard.
• And on this Sunday, I awoke at 6am, bright eyed and bushy tailed*.
• And it had come: the visit to Grandma's.

Stock photo: Christmas 2008

• This drive to Cleburne, TX, home of Grandma (not to be confused with Cleveland, a common misunderstanding of my childhood), is unusual, for I opt to stay awake the entire 3 hour or so drive from Austin**.
• This, in my estimation, is one of the prime times of the year to be in that part of Texas. While the heat is on, everything is still quite lush.
• After a meal of Buffalo Creek, Mom, Kelly, and I make to investigate a curious object we notice on the mudflats from our perch on the hill.
• Is it animal, mineral, old rotted tire?
• Not a one.
• Turns out it's a tree stump.
• I plank the tree stump.
• Turns out it's got some pretty sharp vertical points for a tree stump***.
• "Well, Grandma, it's about time to go."
• A Texas-day trip, complete: 3 hours each way.
• Some things in life are not meant to be: Robertson's is close, so my turkey sandwich comes from Schlotzsky's****.
• Alright.
• We arrive back in town in time for a free show at Antone's with my pal Dani: Lost Mountain Bayou Rambling Old Time Boys Revival.
• And it is a good one.
• Picture of the day: Please see above...*****
  

As they say, "It was a Day".

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*And far more bushy-tailed than my activities the day prior should have allowed, though I maintain that the unusually early nights that daytime drinking often lend themselves to also provide the length of sleep to ameliorate the day's work and put you on fresh feet in time for Sunday brunch. History would not lie!
**I love sleeping in cars. Actually, it's not so much a love as it is an inability to stay awake while being anywhere in a moving car other than the wheel. So comfortable.
***An artist sacrifices all for his art.
****And with that, WIDWINW has stooped into the "what I ate for lunch yesterday" realm of blogdom. Huzzah! And they said it wouldn't be done.
*****... for a picture taken 3 years prior.

One or More Things I Did Today (One Month Late Is Better Than Never Edition)

And Let It Be Known, that on July 23rd, in the year of 2 thousands and 11, I was up to this:

• In honor of being a month behind of my "One or More Things I Did Today..." travelogue schedule, I present this classic Roots song, "Long Time".
• If I recall*, I was not the only one who slept in.
• We (The Family) decide around 9am to put off the visit to Grandma's house to tomorrow.
• Which lends itself to this.
• After a refresher beer at the Draught House, Carmen drops Mike and I off at the scene of Get Wet 3.
  
• Over the course of the sunny Texas summer day, we proceed to achieve the following: Viking chug the dark Real Ale beer from the donated kegs (for a good cause!), followed by slip-and-sliding the remnants off my chest and suit; introduce Stump (a podiatrist's dream) to Texas; rediscover the joys of the above ground and kiddy pools; make a hazy twilight visit to the new location of P.Terry's.
• Cap it all off with being in bed by 10pm on a Saturday night, and you've got yourself a number 1 hit there.
• Picture of the Day: Hm, dunno. Mike/Nick/Melissa, you guys got any of them?

As they say, "It was a Day".

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*Which I do, and I do now from a table at Uncommon Grounds in Burlington, VT.