all these voices... singing in my head... or at the capitol
texas winter weather and rain were lingering about, but we stuck to our plans and went to the capitol. A Cappella Texas was having a holiday singing event. we know one of the singers in that group; gary, he makes good jelly/jam.
we've lived here for years, but this was our first time in the capitol. many ornate details that you'd expect of an important municipal building, sort of like being inside a wedding cake.
I did not like it up there at the top. grabbed a pic and ran back from the edge I did.
found a christmas tree in the house of representatives.
"uh, hey! get back here. you're not supposed be in there"... does he look like he cares?
only portrait of Jim Bowie
I'm very opinionated about chili. several years back I had a REAL chili, real chili flavor, from actual chilies, and chunks of fork tender meat (not ground) and a real spicy kick to it (no beans). I worked on my technique until I was no longer happy with any other chili. until.... texas chili parlor. GO THERE! it's right by the capitol and cheap too! their gumbo was also good.
BLANTON MUSEUM OF ART B-SCENE DECEMBER 2011:
we did enjoy the exhibit of works by El Anatsui, but then something caught our attention.... the tall skinny white girl on high heels was doing karaoke to sexy back (justin timberlake). we were amused...
and what followed... could only happen when you have a bar, inside an art museum in austin texas (examples at the bottom)
nutcracker at the blanton
one of our favorite stops near the blanton, carillon at the att conference center. duck liver pate' with house made fig mustard.
more rain and cold weather.... it was inevitable... guinness time
we've concluded that the BEST place for a proper english/irish beer is the dog/duck pub.
I warned the daughter, "that chip you have has at least twenty jalapeno slices on it". her reply, "yeah?" she easily gobbled it up. her brother was a bit more reactive when he accidentally got jalapeno juice in his eye.
kat is back at the tarts. a work in progress.
sunday at the bowling alley. kat's dream of us getting better at bowling is coming true. it takes three consecutive sunday trips to the bowling alley. I finally gave up trying to use my "found" ball that has only two holes that are way too big for my fingers. I switched balls and tried to break into triple digit scores. and then it all came together, STRIIIIIKE! on my final frame I even got back to back strikes. everybody saw a good jump in their ability to get the ball to make contact with the pins. I finished at 117 and I was happy with that.
kids also played some air hockey.
hot korean soup sounded great after all that bowling, but the place we landed at sort of sucked. so we went to the dog and duck pub, again.
#1 son claimed this was the first time in his life he saw a "real" pinball machine. he'd only known the virtual type.... so we stuffed some quarters in it. or as they say at the korean cafeteria "ONE-FOURTH!"
the spicy fried green beans at dog and duck were good, as was the fish and chips.
