What's the Weather Like in Austin?

82 degrees. And it's only February.

Good god, we're in for a hot summer. The upside is that I'm tired of wearing a jacket.

Historically, we still have a chance at another freeze this spring. Our average last freeze is March 16th, says a landscape designer friend.

Still, I think it's safe to say we'll hit 100 degrees by April. If you're going to move to Austin and you happen to have a black car (as I do), consider selling it first. Or look into tinted windows.

In other news, a UT professor is predicting that we will come out of our drought this summer. (For those of you who are unaware, we're currently up shit creek in terms of water levels. Lake Travis is down 17 feet.)

SXSW Free Parties

Some of you may have picked up from my post yesterday that I'm a hippie foodie who is in bed by 10pm. While that's true, I also like to keep an eye out for fun events that, yes, include drinking and music. I may never actually go to them, but by golly, I know about them. (In my defense, I'm 5 months pregnant and have a 2 year old, so STEP OFF.)

Anyway, here's a good article on free SXSW parties.

(And just for the record, this entry is not because my 25 year old coworker called me a homebody yesterday. It's because I care about you, the reader, having the complete picture. Drink a jager bomb for me, would ya?)

South by Southwest Visitors - What to do when you're burned out.

I am no authority on SXSW. I've lived in Austin for 4.5 years and I've only been to one SXSW music show - and that was more of a joke than anything (how can you pass up an opportunity to see Vanilla Ice play?). March is prime camping season for Texas and I'm usually sleeping under the stars, listening to crickets and frogs, instead of rocking til my ears bleed.

However, I am an authority (self-nominated) on what to do when you DON'T want to go to hear a band play. Or see another indie film, or go to another lecture on SEO's. So here's my official list of what to go do when you're burned out on SXSW:

1. Grab some Mexican food. That's a no-brainer, but may I suggest going to Polvo's? I personally dig their al pastor anything. Try the chile relleno with al pastor, with the pecan cream sauce. Or the mole.
   
2. Go to Whole Foods, at 6th and Lamar. It's their flagship store, and is like the Epcot Center of grocery stores. I take all my out of town guests there for lunch.
3. Saturday morning would be a fun time to go over to Boggy Creek Farm in East Austin for their farmers market. Even if you have no way to roast fresh brussels sprouts at your Motel 6, you can get a cup of coffee, croissant and yogurt and wander the farms. It may be too early for strawberries, but you might get lucky. There is also a larger farmers market called Sunset Valley that has way more offerings, but the setting just isn't as nice (think asphalt parking lot).
   
4. Rent a canoe or kayak and explore Lady Bird Lake (AKA the body of water that looks like a river that cuts through downtown).
5. Grab some sun, or freeze your ass off swimming in Barton Springs.
6. Go for a hike along Barton Creek. See my earlier post here.
7. Eat barbecue. I'd suggest going to Ruby's and then afterwards going shopping at the best toy store in the world, Toy Joy.
8. Get an ice cream cone at Amy's Ice Cream. It's a local favorite with several locations, and they change their menu daily.
   
9. Go see "The Birth of the Cool," an exhibit that just opened at the Blanton. It's all about midcentury design, and is FREE all day until 9pm on Thursday, March 19th.
10. Grab picnic supplies at Whole Foods and then head to the Capitol. The grounds there are gorgeous, and if you happen to have kids, they'll love rolling down the hills and chasing squirrels. Maybe you'll be so giddy about your visit to Austin that you'll join in too.
    

To move to Austin, or to not move to Austin. That is the overwhelming question.

Have you ever listened to the radio program called Radiolab? It's a great program for people like me who, say, are kept up late at night wondering what Canadians call Canadian bacon. Or how can you tell if blue cheese has gone bad? Radiolab celebrates curiosity, and it's one of my favorite programs out there.

One of their recent shows is on the topic of Choices - is it good to have a lot of choices, or does it ultimately overwhelm us into making bad decisions? Listening to it, I was reminded of the full 3 years my husband and I debated where we should move to.

We were living in San Francisco, and though we loved it there, we knew it just wasn't the place for us. LA, Vancouver, Portland, Austin, Nashville, Savannah, New Orleans and Asheville were all on our list of possible new locales.

We had pros and cons list for each town, and researched their economies, their lifestyles, their weather, etc. We scoured chat forums to get peoples opinions of towns, and even considered a massive scouting trip where we could check out all the cities to get a feel for them. It was all we talked about. It was crazy and overwhelming.

Back to Radiolab -- scientists are finding that we can really only keep track of about 7 things at once. And that's not just 7 items with all their comparisons - 7 sets of economies, 7 sets of lifestyles, etc. It's 7 total - so only comparing 7 economies but ignoring all the rest of the lists.

After that: brain mush. Endless circles of reviewing and second guessing, with no hope of an answer in sight. Pulling out the magic 8 ball and begging for an answer.

You just can't make a life-changing decision like that. Sure, it's good to do research, but in the end you have to follow what your gut tells you to do. Don't dismiss your feelings - they're an important part of the process.

All of our pro and con lists pointed to moving to LA. We had lived there before and had business contacts, friends, and favorite restaurants to get back to. We were literally two weeks away from moving back there when we had a sudden epiphany - we wanted to move to Austin, not LA. No more explanation necessary.

Put down your lists, back away from the computer, and trust your instincts. If you want to move to Austin, you'll know.

Austin Light Rail. Or: Public Transportation is So Sexy.

Austin seriously needs to go ahead and start running their new light rail system. My toddler has been waiting patiently to ride the train and I don't think I can hold him off much longer.

Looks like service on the Red Line will start on March 30, 2009. It'll cost about $1.00 - 1.50 to ride one way, depending on what zone you start in. Kids under 6 are free, meaning cheap entertainment for us on the weekends. Maybe we can even have his birthday party on board? More info>>>

Let's hope that it's a sweeping success and takes loads of vehicle traffic off our streets. And then everyone will vote yes on future light rail projects, and 10 years from now none of us will ever have to touch our cars again, except to drive out to The Salt Lick.

Edited on 5/4/09 to add: The project has had some setbacks, and is on an indefinite hold until the problems get worked out.

New Jersey is NOT like Texas!!!

This summer I went to my dear friend Tobi's wedding in NYC. Tobi and I lived in Winston-Salem and San Francisco together and share a love of dirty vodka martinis. She met a darling guy at a gallery crawl in Brooklyn who swept her off her feet, and I was thrilled to watch the two lovebirds tie the knot. Especially because it was my first Jewish wedding. Mazel Tov!

One of the funniest conversations I had at the wedding went like this:

Groom's Uncle: "So where are you from?"
Me: "Austin, TX"
Groom's Uncle: "Oh, huh. [Laughs.] Texas is like the New Jersey of the rest of the country."
Groom's New Jersey Friend, very indignantly: "New Jersey is NOT like Texas!!!"

How did Texas get such a bad rap?

I bring this up because I just finished a book this weekend called The Elements of Style by Wendy Wasserstein. It was set in NYC. There's a minor scene where the main character goes to a bar and is annoyed by a table full of loud, brash women with Texas accents.

I've also been slogging through Catcher in the Rye for the past two months (I'm sorry but I don't know why this one is a beloved classic. This is my second attempt to read the book and I JUST CAN'T GET INTO IT.) Anyway, again, there's a minor scene in a bar where the main character gets annoyed by loud, brash Texans.

Come on, New Yorkers. We're worse than NEW JERSEY? We're the loud and brash ones?

Obviously y'all need to put down your bagels and bring your neurotic, Yankee-ball-cap-wearing selves down here and see how awesome Texas can be. And so we can make fun of your accents.

Friday Favorite

Another thing I love about Austin is...

Swimming holes. I'm talking about natural swimming areas, far removed from chlorine and concrete, and no membership to the club is required.

I know, it's February, and swimming weather is a good couple months away. But I just can't help dreaming about all the perfect spots that the Austin area has to offer.

The main one in Austin is Barton Springs. It's a gigantic, spring fed pool in a gorgeous setting, minutes from downtown. There are fanatics who swim there everyday of the year. I'll be honest - I love the idea of Barton Springs, but it's just too cold (68 degrees year round). The one time I've had fun swimming in there is when I had goggles on and was swimming around so fast looking at crawfish that I didn't notice the cold as much. All the other times I've just dipped in a toe and then worked on my tan.

If you walk up Barton Creek along the greenbelt, you'll find even more places to swim. I've just found out about Campbell's Hole, about one mile upstream from Barton Springs. It's a pebble beach and a "reliable" pool, meaning that even when the rest of the creek dries up, there's probably water there. Bonnie and Clyde hid out there! I think you access it off of the Spyglass Access Point, or the one behind Barton Hills Elementary. Twin Falls is also nice, but crowded and is dried up a lot. You get to it by parking near where Mopac Expressway crosses over the Barton Creek Greenbelt. Sculpture Falls is even further upstream. I have no idea how to get there but I mean to find out this summer.

Hamilton Pool is more of a drive, and sometimes in the summer it gets so crowded that you can't even get in, but it's like a little paradise. It's surrounded by a limestone grotto with a waterfall, and all these pretty ferns everywhere make you think you're almost in Hawaii. The water is warmer too, so you can actually feel your toes when you're swimming around. You can jump off rocks, too, and who doesn't feel like a kid then?

Blue Hole in Wimberley is so small town Southern and quaint you'll want to bring apple pie and iced tea to enjoy the scenery. (Word to the wise, get your pie at the Wimberly Pie Company down the street. Awesome stuff). It's a relatively deep part of a creek that's surrounded by tall cypress trees. There are ropes to swing on, and if you're like the crazy local townies, you can climb up the trees and jump off too.

Krause Springs in Spicewood is GORGEOUS. Can I use that word enough in this post? Anyway, if I had to pick the most gorgeous of this list, this would be it. It's also on a creek and is made up of several "lagoons" along a waterfall. It's also surrounded by cypress trees, making most of it be a shaded paradise. Unfortunately, I think it's also the most crowded on the weekends, and full of people who like to blare their stereos and smoke and throw their Bud Lite cans on the ground. I bet it's wonderful during the week.

Austin unemployment rate

It's at 5.2%.

To compare, the average of Texas is at 6%, and nationwide it's at 7.2%.

Just to show you I'm not only reporting news that makes Austin look good, there are lower unemployment rates in Texas. Ever been to Lubbock? They're sitting real pretty with their 3.8%. All I'm saying is that they throw tortillas at their football games. Sounds like fun, right?

Austin: We still rule even in this shitty economy.

Even with a 66% drop in new home construction since its peak in 2006, Austin had the lowest drop compared to 81 other major metro areas, according to a research done by Metrostudy. Meaning, Austin is #1.

We're number 1! We're number 1!

In your face, South Florida.

Link to Austin Business Journal here.

Welcome to Austin. Cheers!

Forbes Magazine has ranked Austin as one of the hardest drinking cities in America. Says Forbes, "According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) 2007 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey, 61.5% of adult residents say they have had at least one drink of alcohol within the past 30 days, and a staggering 20.6% of respondents confess to binge drinking, or having five or more drinks on one occasion."

When you've got one of the largest universities (50,000+ enrolled) smack dab in the middle of town, I guess that's going to happen.

I'm doing my part to lower that number. I've only had 2 glasses of wine in the last three months! Of course, I'm pregnant. And it's Shiner's 100 year anniversary this year. So once this baby pops out in July, hand me five or more beers! I need to catch up.