FIRST HALLOWEEN DILEMMA

What to be? What to be?

Toothless the Dragon?

Or a cuddly little panda bear?

Many thanks to Lexi's wonderful friend Stephanie, of Angry Baby: Badass Baby Wear, for giving us so many great options!
  

OUR LUCKY DAY: UNOFFICIAL SXSW

As a rule, I don't go anywhere near Austin, TX during SXSW. The older I get, the less tolerance I have for traffic jams and mob scenes. Plus, it costs a fortune to get into any of the "official" events. What I didn't know, however, was that there are many, many "unofficial" events going on at the same time, some of which are free of charge. Still, there's that bit about mob scenes and traffic jams. Plus, they were predicting thunderstorms all day Wednesday -- the day Hubby had invited me to go hear some music down on S. Congress with him. I was still dragging my feet when he said the magic words "The Trishas are playing." Even then, I wouldn't commit. I went to bed saying "We'll see what the weather's like in the morning.

Turns out, this was gonna be our lucky day! We woke up to an absolutely gorgeous sunny day, with all chances of rain erased from the forecast. We left home by 10:00, and the traffic was not too terrible. We thought we'd have to park miles away and walk, but not only did we manage to get a spot in the parking garage right behind Hopdaddy's, it was a spot on one of the lower levels! Then we managed to beat the crowd to Perla's, and enjoyed a delicious seafood lunch out on their terrace -- a most excellent spot for people-watching (though you will pay through your nose for that privilege). That's the very best thing about being in Austin you know. The people-watching! Luckily, we had some time to kill before our concert, so we had plenty of time for that, as well as my other favorite activities, just wandering S. Congress and window shopping.

Shiner Bock has been sponsoring this free concert event, on the outdoor stage next to Hotel San Jose and Jo's Coffee, for 17 or 18 years now. The Trishas are just one of many who will perform there this year --  but the only ones who could have drawn me down into the chaos, for I've been dying to hear them again ever since they performed at Susanna's Kitchen in Wimberley, a couple of years ago.

One of the band members, Savanna Welch, is daughter of musician Kevin Welch, who lives in Wimberley.

My only regret was that the bands were kept to such a tight schedule that they didn't get to sing my favorite song, High, Wide and Handsome (aka Mother of Invention).  Which really makes it Hubby's lucky day. Cuz if they had played it?

Well, I surely would have dragged him out there on the dance floor to join these brave folks.

Hubby's headed back down there today to see his personal favorite, Ray Wylie Hubbard. What a lucky boy!
 

TIME TRAVEL DOES EXIST

My hubby sure knows how to show a girl a good time. Last night he took me on one of our best dates ever! It started out here, in Austin, at Elizabeth Street Cafe.

Elizabeth St. is a French-Vietnamese cafe and boulangerie, with an emphasis on fresh, local ingredients. For starters we shared an order of their pork belly buns.

  Next, John had a Vietnamese soup that he just loved...

while I chowed down on an amazing Ban Mi sandwich filled with pate!

Dessert include two chocolatey French delights -- a bouchon, and an eclaire. I chose the classic French eclaire, with cream filling and dark chocolate ganache, but there was also a Nutella version available.

I just loved the little sarong-like wrap dresses and soft-soled shoes that all of the waitresses wore, each one in a different floral fabric.

From there we headed over to the Student Union building on the UT campus, where I happened to work my last two years of college.

First, I worked at their little General Store, which has been replaced by a food court filled with Starbucks and Wendys and such.

Then, when that area of the building underwent a renovation, they moved me to the information desk. One result of that renovation, thanks to that whole "we're old enough to go to Viet Nam and fight for our country, but not to vote or drink?" debate, and the temporary lowering of the legal drinking age to eighteen, was the Cactus Cafe -- a bar and music venue, right there in the Student Union building!

So, how do I know that time travel is actually possible? Because, when we first entered that room, we were all a bunch of greying 50- and 60-somethings. But once those lights went down, and Shawn Phillips started singing, well, something magical happened. Suddenly it was 1973 again, and we were all 19 or 20 year old college students, seeing Shawn for the very first time!

If anything, I think Shawn and I have both improved with age.  Here's one of my favorite songs from back in the day.

PEOPLE WITH PASSION

Ya gotta love people who are really passionate about something -- especially if those people are willing to share what they learned the hard way, through trial and error, to make things a little bit easier for you.  Take Mr. Gani here.

He and his lovely wife are members of the LAMP program at UT, like my hubby. Nine years ago they moved into a nice little newly-built home in the Austin suburbs, near Southpark Meadows shopping center. Backyard sod was not part of the builder's "package", so Mr. Gani said "Fine, I'll just grow a few herbs and veggies instead." These did so well that he then added grapevines to cover the fence, and some fruit trees around the perimeter. When he ran out of room there, he took over the two side yards as well, and is now creeping into the front.  At some point he added two 1,500 gallon, low-profile rain tanks (which sit below the fence line), solar panels on his roof, and of course, those compost bins you see behind him. Did I mention that he grows it all organically?

Now those trees are fully grown, and laden with figs, peaches, pears, satsuma oranges, kumquats, loquats, lemons, pineapple guava and pomegranates.

He even has a couple of olive trees, and taught himself how to cure the olives! Hard to believe this lush paradise was achieved with nothing more than compost and a bit of cottonseed meal. I'd say he and his wife, both vegetarians, probably eat quite well from this tiny suburban plot (they even grow chick peas for protein), and I'm just ever so grateful that he is willing to share his giddy joy with others, and teach by example!

SLOW MONEY

Have any of you met my pal Heather?  If you live anywhere around Austin/Wimberley/New Braunfels, you have surely heard of her.  I stumbled across her when I started reading her Green Guru column in the Wimberley News and Views magazine.  Or, maybe you've seen her amazing sculpture exhibit, Lifeboats, as it made its way around the Hill Country.  She's the wife of Dr. Marc Gitterle, mother of nine-year-old Aiden and four-year-old Gable, and, when she was pregnant with young Gabe -- because, you know, she just didn't have enough on her plate at the time -- she helped to create the amazing Bountiful Sprout (perhaps you've heard me mention it once or twice?).

Anyhoo, we've been working together on the TBS board now for about four years, and it's been quite a ride.  Heather is our president, idea person, and schmoozer extaordinaire.  I just do ordinary stuff like taking minutes and keeping track of all the producer permits, but every so often I tag along to help out at various events, and it's always such a treat to see Heather in action!

Friday before last I got to go with her to this awesome event at the beautiful Barr Mansion in Austin.  I know you have surely heard of the Slow Food movement by now, but do you know anything about Slow Money?  Slow Money Austin exists to support and enrich a sustainable regional food system.  They're working to increase capital opportunities for food entrepreneurs, producers, innovators and local organizations that are leading the way toward sustainable, financially beneficial growth in Central Texas -- organizations like TBS.  Events like this one at Barr Mansion help raise awareness, make connections, attract investment and align resources amongst all the people with a stake in sustainability here in our community.  Plus, they're just a whole lotta fun!

The room was surrounded with tables like ours, and before we'd even finished setting up, people were stopping by to chat with us.  They wanted to know what our purpose was, how we got started, how our business "worked", and what our plans for the future were. They all had a bit of trouble believing that we weren't in it for profit -- that we wanted as much money as possible to stay with the farmers and producers themselves.

While we were doing our "thing", local chefs were back in the kitchen preparing an awesome feast, using ingredients contributed by all of the participants.

Our contribution was the beautiful soy candles that went on all the tables, and the liquid hand soap that went in the bathrooms, from two of our vendors.

Before the evening was over, we had acquired new members, had a new producer who wanted to sell his fabulous hummus through us (which had been served here as the appetizer) and had managed to spread the word to a lot of Austinites that we had just opened a new branch there in Austin that very week.  Wow.  It just never ceases to amaze me, what all can be accomplished when you combine an idea person, a few worker bees, and some good old fashioned networking.

SATURDAY SPLORIN': TREEHOUSE

We've been hearing a lot of ads on the radio lately, for a new store in Austin called TreeHouse.  From what I could gather, they were an oh-so-Austin version of your standard home improvement store -- one where all the greenest, healthiest, most sustainable versions of all those items you need for your various household maintenance and home improvement projects, have been gathered together in one convenient location.  Since it happens to be located in West Gate shopping center, which has several other stores we love to visit, we decided it was time to do some 'splorin!

Here's some of the cool stuff we nabbed while there.  I'm especially excited about the strainers to put in the top of all our gutter downspouts.  I've been freaking out ever since Julie's friend told me about the rodent that ended up in their water catchment system's eliminator after a rainstorm.  They also had a very cool kitchen section, with all kinds of beautiful bamboo stuff and some great food storage options, to replace all that plastic.  The garden section had everything you would need for raised veggie bed building, composting and water barrel installation -- including a neat little solar powered pump to make it easier to get the water from the barrel to go where you need it.

Next stop was Genghis Grill, for a spot of lunch.  If you've never had Mongolian barbecue (you walk down a buffet filled with stir fry ingredients, spices and sauces, pile what you want in your bowl, then they cook it up for you on a big round griddle), it's a fun place to try -- but not nearly as fun as the first place we tried it back before we were married, Genghis Khan, down on lower Greenville in Dallas.  That's the place where, when asked if he served "authentic" Mongolian barbecue, the owner replied, "As authentic as you can get without the health department shutting you down."  By the way, you are allowed to go through the line as many times as you wish, trying a different combination of ingredients each time, but I've never made it past the first bowl.

After that we headed to the West Gate theater, where we had hoped to see Johnny Depp playing Hunter S. Thompson, the king of gonzo journalism, in The Rum Diary.  I guess it was not a big hit though, for it had ended its brief run the day before.  No worries.  We still had plenty of fun places to explore.  From there we went to Whole Earth Provision Co., and in addition to several Christmas gifts and stocking stuffers, you'll never guess what I found, in just my size, on the half-price table.  These!  Way better than smooth-bottomed Zumba shoes or backless, slip-on Skechers, for hiking to the top of Enchanted Rock, don't you think?

Last but not least was Central Market.  I just love browsing around CM and the Whole Foods flagship store pre-Christmas.  I don't usually buy much, I just love looking at all the eye-candy, and the festive atmosphere.  John picked up a bottle of wine, and I got two precious baggies filled with my favorite loose-leaf teas from Republic of Tea.

Oh yeah, and we saw some of the strangest fruit we've ever seen, outside of Indonesia.

How on earth would you peel/eat this sea-creature-like thing, which had a thick, citrus-style rind?

Have you ever seen an apple that's bright pink inside?

All in all, a most satisfying day.  The only spot we didn't make it to was Amy's Ice Cream, my hubby's favorite, but if he tries to tell you it's because I wouldn't let him have any, he's lyin'.  It's only because he was just too full after that Mongolian barbecue!  Also, 'though I certainly miss all the Borders bookstores that shut down (the only ones that were on our side of Austin),  I have to admit that a very cool home improvement store took the place of the one at West Gate, and I sure hope it takes off like gangbusters!  It would do my heart good to know that it gave up its life for something worthwhile.

HAPPY DIA DE LOS MUERTOS Y'ALL

Guess Who?

NOT YOUR AVERAGE MOVIE THEATRE

Usually I let my husband and kids pick our movies, which means I've seen a whole lot of sci-fi, fantasy,  gore, action and comic-based movies.  Ever so often though, I dig my heels in, and insist that we see something worthy of being called "film" or "cine."  For the last few years, that's been a problem, since the only art house theatre in Austin was on the far north side.  I lucked out when I happened to find Midnight in Paris showing at one of the mainstream theatres, and again when I just happened to be in Dallas during the one week when Bride Flight was being shown.  But those two just whetted my appetite -- made me crave more of the same!

So, imagine my glee when I stumbled across some facebook chatter about a new place called The Violet Crown!  With its convenient downtown location, it's at least 20 or 30 minutes closer to us than the other art house theatre, and there are other plusses as well.  Such as the lovely cafe/bar just off the lobby, in case you want to meet friends for a drink or dinner beforehand.  I was kinda tickled with the beverage selection too -- at a help-yourself fountain in the hallway, with free refills allowed.  It's not every day you see selections such as these:

That's Dublin Dr. Pepper, in case you didn't notice, and Texas Prickly Pear Cactus Juice Lemonade!

When I checked to see what all was showing on that particular day, I realized that I would be happy seeing just about any one of the five or six choices, so we just went and enjoyed a leisurely lunch at nearby Walton's Staple and Fancy (the cafe I wrote about in my last post), then showed up at the theatre and bought tickets for whatever show started next -- which is how we came to see Buck, a wonderful documentary about a real life Horse Whisperer.  See it if you get the chance!  Now if only Austin would extend that light rail south, to Kyle.