Thanksgiving

Well let's see, lots of cool things have been going on: First off, Nicole's First Night proposal has been coming along nicely, Nicole and I have been meeting with lots of folks, from the Executive and Associate Directors to COA Facilitys and Building Services and everyone in between. The show is a go and we've managed to add Ali, which is awesome! So if you don't have plans you should check this out New Years Eve, probably around 9pm or so, I'll let you all know. We will be in City Hall performing with a choir.

Two weekends ago I went down to the farmers market, intending to spend $100. See I had never spent much there, maybe $25 at most and usually for some artisan item. Call it a test in grocery shopping, finance, sustainability; really I just wanted to try and spend more there and less other places. As I've been biking much more lately (and currently have limited cargo) I find I go to HEB much less, pity that is. I'd say I get ~30% of my grocery's at the downtown F.M. and ~60% at Fresh Plus. Anyways, here is what I got:



I spent $80, not bad; all in one trip by bike.

This past weekend my parents came in, that was pretty cool. My step-father Sam learned that a map seller he liked was going to be at The Junior League of Austin 2008 A Christmas Affair (link warning: may lead to annoying music, themes, pictures, events, color schemes, fonts and/or anything else that could be any more annoying). So, I hear this event likened to "The Nutcracker" in Houston, I have not been there myself. Anyways the map vendor was really cool, great old maps. They had a couple of original large prints (~40"x40") that UT was printing of the 1961 Geologic Atlas of Texas. Pretty cool stuff. Sam found two cool US maps, one of native linguistics and another of Civil War boundaries. I forgot to take pictures.

That was Saturday. On Sunday we had a most excellent bike/art/soup adventure! Our objectives were 1) ride bikes 2) make stops on the East Austin Studio Tour 3) roll by the Empty Bowl Project at the MACC; we did all three and had a great time. The weather was perfect, overcast and just right temps.



Here was our route, done clockwise starting at my apt off W. 6th:


View Larger Map


Ahh yes, all was great. Unfortunately Thanksgiving was one of the worst I've had in a while. No friends, no food, no family. I was hoping to catch a ride with said friend to Houston (see: family/food ..i.e. my favorite things ever!) when upon learning Wed. night he'd decided to leave early and forgot to let me know. Now I had thought pretty hard about riding in the Gobble Wobble, but had not found a partner to ride with and despite the high chance of being able to find one in the morning I pretty much lost hope and motivation. Oh well, you have to have the bad ones to have the good ones, I'm sure next year will be great! Plus, the day is not even over yet, ha!, I'm still going out, to eat, watch football, celebrate football, meet friends, and go on a bike ride.... (I'm feeling shoal creek). So, hey, not a total loss. I've also been reminded of my moodiness again today.

Ok, time to roll folks, ya'll have a great weekend!