My brother surprised us by showing up on Thanksgiving day. Kat and I were working in the yard when he just casually walked up and started chatting. It took me a minute to realize what had just happened. He is currently stationed at Fort Bragg (North Carolina).
We hid him so he could surprise my Mom when she came over. I caught the moment.
The turkey was dropped in the hot oil.
The turkey came out all golden brown. We were proud of ourselves.
It was a good meal.
I drug my family to the Jester King Friday morning. I needed to get some Spon for a friend...
We also enjoyed some Stanley's Farmhouse Pizza while there.
Then, the rest of the holiday weekend was devoted to knocking out my brother's Texas To-Do list:
My Dad came down to spend the day with us. First item on the list was Micheladas from Takoba
The final list item was a Mexican Martini from Matt's el Rancho, along with Pecan Smoked Brisket Flautas.
I managed to get a last minute press pass to Cochon 555. This is a pork lovers dream come true. We were unprepared for the abundance of delicious food (and beverage) that was laid out for us on the beautiful lawn of the Four Seasons. Truly amazing, it would be a bargain at the $100 ticket price.
Don Julio provided top shelf margaritas.
The grilled oysters were so good.
Pork rinds with mole.
Pop-up butcher shop by Salt & Thyme.
We were there for a over an hour. We had so much delicious food and drink. We didn't even get to the wineries that were there. I would definitely go again next year, with a better game plan to get more out of it. We hit a wall pretty quickly yesterday. The event was four hours long and did include a dessert course (not pictured).
It was a fairly usual Monday, but the evening was different. We had the opportunity to help judge a Drambuie Cocktail Competition, winner receiving an all expenses paid trip to Scotland!
Congratulations to Tacy Rowland of The Roosevelt Room. She will be heading to Scotland!
The architect we hired for this house had a party, goats were grilled and bands played. The band below doesn't have a name yet, but they are "Open For Suggestions".
They might be influenced by Guided by Voices and Superchunk (from what I can gather). I liked them and hope they continue.
Austin has a sister city in France, Angers (pronounced ON-jzay)
Cherry Plum from Angers played for us. The good people of Angers also sent one of their French Chef over to make us some special pizza at ABGB,
More than twenty five years ago, I noticed a friends mother had a Gameboy in her car. She went on to tell me all about her high scores. I found this funny. She said, "Just you wait Paul! One day, YOU will have some sort of device when you find yourself needing something to do, like waiting in the pick up line at school..." I found that idea funny as well, that'd I'd have kids and I'd be the one that spent my time shuffling them around... Oh how right she was.
Now nearly everybody has a smart phone. It can be a great tool and has so many options for killing extra time. The problem now, they have become SO interesting, they are no longer reserved for empty or bored moments. They are now something that has to be served, and often it receives attention at the expense of people and events in the real world.
I'm reminded of the movie, The Matrix. Where humans are slaves to an electronic world where their reality is entirely digitized. It seems each year, we are choosing to spend more time in the digital world, and less attention in the real world. Games, Videos, and Text on phones are demanding more and more time. It can be called multi-tasking, but a brain can only offer a partial attention while it's also doing another task at the same time. These tools are starting to make me feel lonely and it often makes the user irritable, not happy. When does the machine serving us, become us serving the machine?
A chicken dancing the Chicken Dance, at Wurstfest 2016
Wearing the lederhosen and dirndl are part of our German cultural trip to Wurstfest.
We also enoy the carnival rides, the sausage on a stick (the daughter and I really enjoyed the Bratwurst), and the beer was enjoyed by the parents. We did have a designated driver, my mom doesn't like beer. Then there is also the music. Where you have music, you often have dancing. If it's a German Oktoberfest sort of polka music... they will likely play the Chicken Dance. I came prepared this year.
Chicken dancing the Chicken Dance:
Kat contributed our two pitchers to the giant empty pitcher tower we found in Wursthalle.
