austin rules, plus modern homes tour

I've got some time to write while I wait for my dearly beloved to bring me back a reuben sandwich from Little Deli. I am STARVING.

Someone just sent me a link to their blog with links to articles about how much Austin rules. Austin appears on so many top ten lists it's hard to keep track, but that's a good compilation of them.

Also, if you are interested in drooling over houses this weekend, check out the Austin Modern Home Tour.

This hunger is making me very concise in my descriptions, so you're just going to have to click on the links to read more. 

Cheers!

Austin circa 1937

I looooove looking at old photos of cities, don't you?   My mom sent me this old photo of Austin that she found in my grandmother's pictures recently.  We can't really place where it is. She thinks it was taken in 1937, and she said maybe from the Capitol looking west, but it looks a little too high of a perspective for me. Maybe the UT tower? Or maybe from a plane, because my grandparents were pilots and flew around here a lot.  That Victorian in the front of the photo looks familiar, but I can't place it. Anyone want to guess?

making friends in austin

My husband just sent me this blog post on making friends in Austin.  It's got some really great points to it.  I've often felt envious of people who grew up and/or when to college here - or at least envious of their social networks.  Let's face it, it's harder to make friends after you get out of high school and college.

I've paraphrased the author's points here (in bold), and added my own experience with them.


1. Join an organization.  So true, this helps on a friend level and also on a job level. My husband and I are both active with our professional organizations, AIGA (for graphic designers) and AIA (for architects). He's a board member, and I'm getting suckered into becoming one as well, but at the bare minimum you can just go to the social functions.

On the parent side, I joined two mom groups when I had my first child, and they were invaluable in making connections.  Technically I helped create the groups - one was women from my birthing class, and another was formed from prenatal yoga class regulars. You can also look for groups on meetup.com, or start your own. You could also put churches in this category if you are so inclined.

2. Find “friends of friends”. This advice never really panned out for me, but now that everyone is on Facebook it might be a little easier to find these connections.

3. Discover your college alumni association. Also good advice, though I have never gone to one of my university's meetups because they seem to be centered around watching USC games at a bar. Not that it's a bad thing, GO TROJANS and all that stuff, but not really my cup of tea. Perhaps it's yours though.

4. Get a hobby. I've taken art classes through UT extension courses, and now I've joined the roller derby rec league. I know several single guys who are having a blast now that they've joined the Austin Swing Syndicate (Swing dancing, that is.  Get your mind out of the gutter).  I also know friends who are on the rec league for rugby, hockey, kickball and softball. We have several cooking schools in town as well.

5. Learn to cook. The author suggests inviting friends over for dinner, which is great advice.  I'd like to add to it, learn to grill.  This is Texas, after all.

6. Be more outgoing than usual.  You've got to take the lead in initiating friendships, period.  This may mean being the person that calls or emails to make plans more than you are comfortable with.  Or be the person that starts up a group. 
 
7. Have a good attitude about your new town. Word. Nothing makes an Austinite think "Go back home!" more than a newcomer who complains about Austin. This is especially true for Californians and New Yorkers.

Awesome weather

It's been in the low to mid 70's all week and GORGEOUS outside. I love this weather. It's nice in the fall too, but the mosquitoes are still hanging around.  I'm also lucky because I don't really have allergies, unlike my husband (who just wheezed for good measure).

We've been putting off hikes all fall & winter, but I hope to get out this weekend. McKinney Falls State Park is always our standby, so we may just have to head over there in between naps.

Time to start planning our spring camping trips too.  I have a feeling this spring (especially April) will be a good wildflower season.  Enchanted Rock in April is amazing, especially if you drive on Willow City Loop Road on the way there. 

reasons I love my neighborhood, Brentwood/Crestview

Because I love lists.  Brentwood / Crestview ROCKS.

• Love the cute mid-century homes here.  I'm amazed we found one with a 2-car garage on a cul-de-sac (SCORE!) which is not that typical, but you just have to look harder.
• Love the 50's era shopping center at the end of Arroyo Seco at Woodrow, with an old school grocery store called the Minimax. My husband was looking for rock salt to make ice cream.  No one else had it but them. They may not have organic monkey picked whoop-di-do sugar like Central Market, but they've got rock salt, damnit.
• Also in that shopping center is Little Deli. I don't really like sandwiches, but I love the ones from here.  And their pizza is amazing.
• Plenty of dive bars to visit.  On our last date, my husband and I tried to go to La La's, which keeps its christmas decorations up year round.  They were closed for a christmas break.  Oh the irony!  So we went to the Poodle Dog Lounge instead.  Both of these places have a disdain for a certain city ordinance that passed a few years ago.  I'm not going to rat them out, but we had to take a shower immediately upon return home, and wash our clothes & jackets.  Every once in a while it's acceptable to risk lung cancer, even second-hand, and we had fun playing pool and drinking canned Shiner while getting stinky.
• Burnet Road shopping.  Tons of little specialty vendors, including vintage and consignment furniture stores.  Fun places to eat too, like Phil's / Amy's, Hey Cupcake!, and Top Notch burgers. 
• Speaking of burgers, I am addicted to Hat Creek Burgers now. Much like I never liked sandwiches, I never ate hamburgers before this place opened up down the street (it's a bread thing, I don't eat pasta either). It's kind of like In'n'out, P.Terry's, Five Guys, or Mighty Fine, with fresh ingredients and a limited menu.
• Close to Playland Skate, where I can get to derby practice in 10 minutes, even in the toughest rush hour traffic.
• Close to Downtown, where I can get to in 15 - 20 minutes during rush hour.
• Close to ethnic eateries on North Lamar.  When I go out to eat, I want hole-in-the-wall asian places, and there's plenty for me to chose from.

now in widescreen

...and selling out in the process.

I just updated the site to make it wider for --- advertising.  Yep. Sorry. I'm going to go after businesses that I'd personally recommend anyway, so hopefully you won't hate me too much for it. As a trade, I'm taking down the Google Ads which are always about laser hair removal or something stupid like that. 

If you're a company interested in purchasing ad space, contact me and I'll send you the marketing kit.

Happy New Year

In the last decade, I believe my husband and I have been awake for the turn of the year once or twice. Most of the time we've gone to bed by 10pm, including the much hyped Y2K new years eve when we accidentally fell asleep on the couch watching the ball drop around the world.

Last night was no exception, [except] I awoke at 1:45 am by my crying daughter and didn't get back to sleep until 5:30 am. Let's just say I was celebrating on Pacific time. Happy New Year!

We did make a fun discovery yesterday evening when we went out for Chinese food, which seemed like a good meal for the last of the decade.  My husband wanted to try some place near our house on North Lamar.  We drove into the spot where he thought it was, which was actually a Korean strip mall with a grocery store, 2 restaurants and a karaoke place. It's between Brentwood and Justin Lane, on the west side of the street. No Chinese restaurant.

I should stop here with a side note:  when my husband and I were mere babes, 22 and 21 respectively, we lived in a dirt cheap apartment in Koreatown, Los Angeles. The majority of stores, bars and restaurants within walking distance were Korean. We once walked into a restaurant and were basically shooed out, with the owner shouting "This Korean food!  No American food!"

Let's just say it's an inside joke every time we see a Korean restaurant.  We've gone to Korea Gardens a lot across the street, but since they've gotten their sushi train it's just changed focus and not very fun anymore. We were up for finding a new place.

Wowza.  What a serendipitous event! The restaurant we chose was next door to the karaoke place and did not appear to have a name that was in English, otherwise I'd tell you it. It's a buffet place, which normally skeeves me out but this one looked tasty.  The owners could not have been more welcoming.  They had run out of barbecued pork short rib, and cooked up some more just for us. It was fan-freaking-tastic. Even my son who normally doesn't like meat loved it.  He was happy eating edamame for the most part.

Also on the buffet was beef bulgogi and a spicy pork bulgogi, plus other meat dishes that I was a little hesitant to try (due to my aversion to seafood).  And all the kim chi and other sides you'd care to eat (which for me was very little.  I'm not as adventurous as my husband).

Anyway, it was $10 a person, kids eat free. Make sure you go for dinner or on Saturday, when the buffet features the pork spare rib.

Ooh look, I found it on yelp here.