Life Goes On

I let a date slip by without mentioning it and I need to make amends for that oversight. This past August 3rd was my four year wedding anniversary. Melissa and I celebrated in style. Actually we didn't really. It was a Thursday night and I had to work late so we had dinner at Macaroni Grill and watched the wedding video. We really celebrated in style a week and half later at Vespaio on South Congress. The food was great, the service was excellent, and we got there so early there was no crowd. Melissa, I love you ... and I really love our tradition of eating great food for our anniversary.

This past weekend we continued our quest to do Austiny stuff, but at a slower pace. Friday night we had dinner at Chez Zee. We've been to Chez Zee quite possibly 25 times for dessert but had never had dinner. After dinner we watched Before Sunrise. I thought was appropriate to watch before the big trip. Though let's hope neither of us sleeps with a random person while on our trip. Saturday night we headed down to the Alamo to watch the Sinus Boys skewer Point Break. Man those guys are good.

In World of Warcraft news I finally got around to taking some screenshots.

Here is a shot of Jerry, Richard, and I looking at the sun reflecting in the water off the coast. What you don't see are the crazed werewolves behind us.


I took this one when the server crashed. The spell I was casting never finished so it left this cool glow on my hands.


And here is my main character on his new mount.

Thank You Very Much

I have officially accepted a new position with IBM. It is a 50% travel 50% work at home job so it will allow Melissa and I to move back to New Orleans. Wow. This is really happening.

In other news, we have been busy trying to do as many Austin things as possible. Thursday we attended the Beastie Boys Rap-Along at the Alamo Drafthouse with the Riches. I found out that I didn't know nearly as many Beastie Boys' songs as I thought I did and that I didn't really know the correct words to the ones I did know. Oh, and it was also fun. It seemed Melissa and Taylor had a really good time and I think Carrie and I had a pretty good time just watching them.

Friday Melissa and I went to Kerbey Lane for dinner and then to Little Miss Sunshine. Now that was an odd movie. I liked it, and there were many laugh out loud funny parts, but yeah, odd.

Saturday night, we met up with the Riches and had dinner at Guero's, a South Austin institution. It's a more authentic Mexican restaurant than I am used to, but was still quite good. I'd like to go back and try some different dishes. After dinner we walked across the street to another South Austin institution, the Continental Club. Twice a year they have an Elvis tribute show. This year they had a Sun Records Elvis band and then a Vegas Elvis band. It was awesome. A lot of the songs I didn't know, but we rocked out anyway. People of all ages were in the crowd and everyone was just into it. Very glad we went.

Today, Sunday, Melissa and I spent some time exploring the Blanton museum. Seeing as she walks past it every day on the way to work she figured it would be a good idea to actually go inside. Of the things we saw, I liked the Rembrandt etchings the most. The European Art section was very interesting and all of it was impressive. The Modern Art section, not so much. Some stuff was good, but some of that stuff is just beyond me. There was one installation that was pretty cool, and the collection of American West art was entertaining.

All in all a good Austin weekend.

Cold Beer, Hot Women & Cool Country Music

IBM has officially announced the products I have been working on. Read the normal write up from CNET, or the more offbeat article from The Register, or the press release from IBM. Of course, just cause things are announced doesn't mean I don't have any work to do. Things are still pretty busy or more correctly, when I have something to do, everyone wants it done now. Enough about work.

A couple of weekends back, Melissa and I and the Riches went to the Broken Spoke, a real Texas country dance hall. What an experience! Certainly never done anything like that before. Check out Taylor's pictures for an idea of what it was like. Melissa and I even danced ... kinda.

The gang of five headed down to Port Aransas a week and a half ago and a great time was had by all. I wound up having to leave late and drive down by myself, which wasn't so great, but I got back in my Auburn driving home groove pretty quick. Wish I had known more about where to stop though. I got real used to knowing that exit 96 Evergreen and exit 130 Greenville where the best places to stop between Mobile and Montgomery, but I digress. Saturday we all just spent the day on the beach, which was lovely. I read some of the DaVinci Code as a lazy summer book, soaked up the rays, waded through the seaweed, and frolicked amongst the waves. Yes, frolicked. Taylor's day was a little different. That night we found this odd German/seafood place for dinner and man could that waiter pour a beer. If anything bad can be said about the trip, it's that it was too short. Oh, and the ride back? We drove through a dust storm. Like can't see three feet in front of the car dust storm, for a brief period anyway. Crazy.

What else? Spent a week in RTP for work. Been watching a bunch of movies. Played a lot of WoW. Still making plans for Europe.