NIN + A&T 4Ever

A little history: a Nine Inch Nails concert was my first date with T. Since then we've seen them I don't know how many times- really have lost count. 5? 6? maybe 7? With this current tour, T didn't have a job when tickets were released so we didn't buy any.

Then we hear that the day before their San Antonio show, they're performing at Austin City Limits (which is totally surprising- NIN at ACL?? okay...) but we entered to win tickets. No luck. But a very dear friend got tickets from work but wasn't interested so she gave them to us!!

Never have we seen them so close, nor are we likely to again:

Photo stolen from Austin City Limits. The pink circle is us!!

It was awesome.
An interesting set, very unlike shows in the past, but a lot of fun. Can't wait to see the taping- being so close you miss out on the bigger picture, plus there was a tall guy in front of me so I could only see Reznor from the chin up. The back-up singers (a new addition to the touring group) were fantastic- really enjoyed them. And while some of the "standards" were missing, this version of Sanctified was great (but then I'm partial to Pretty Hate Machine.)

ACL Weekend Fun

I was lucky enough to go to Austin City Limits' Music Festival again this year- went as my friend Ariana's +1 since her husband had to work.

We had SUCH a fun time.

Friday

Thao & the Get Down Stay Down
a little bit of Jimmy Eat World

We've been friends since we were ten!

Fun.
Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend

 Depeche Mode- one of my favorite bands!

Depeche Mode! Saw them in San Antonio several years ago but enjoyed it even more this time!
They didn't play Halo, which is my favorite, but they did play A Pain That I Am Used To so all is good.

Fun in the Sun, and the Rain

My dear, dear friend Ariana came to town this weekend, staying with us and taking me to the ACL Festival. It was so much fun. Such great performances.

Yeah... I know

I've been pretty m.i.a. lately- inviting's kept me really busy. Had 2 shows the past two weeks and one more this weekend. Afterwards I hope to start posting more, again. Really!

But until then... RENEGADE!

See y'all on next week! : )

Happy Valentine's Day

As some of you know, we took Darcy to the vet for a small bump on his chin. Poor guy had a (non-cancerous) tumor that needed to be removed. He did really well, the people at the animal hospital love him, and he had to wear a silly collar (which he kept flipping back like a bib so we just left it like that) for a week, until his stitches were removed.
Here's Darcy trying to sit comfortably:


I have a slight eye glases addiction, thanks to the super affordable zennioptical.com. Had $ to use up from my flex spending account in December so I ordered SIX pairs. Here's one of the more fun pairs : ) It's lime green on the inside, black on the outside, and had lots of sparkles at the corners, pink sparkles making little flowers, too.


And for my dressing room, I made a very nifty purchase. A girl needs a place to sit while she puts on her stockings and shoes, no? Found a fabulously huge (40" across), tufted, round velvet ottoman (from overstock.com) for a *great* price (plus used BillMeLater so no payment is due until May- nice). Here's Darcy modeling it, the evening his stitches were removed:

And on the stationery business front, the AMOA (austin museum of art) downtown is holding a Hatch Show Print exhibit and the buyer, who is fabulous, contacted inviting about having cards for sale in the gift shop during the exhibit. I busted my butt last week and got 2 dozen of 5 designs printed and packaged, and they will be in the shop early this week! Show your support for a local letterpress printing shop and buy a few cards. I'd love to get an email saying "we sold out and need more!"

(The trains are actually printed in brown, not orange)

That's it for now! More later I'm sure. Since I've neglected this I have some catching up to do! : )

Happy Valentine's Day, whether you celebrate it or not. We pick up some chocolate covered strawberries from Amy's Ice Cream, a pizza from Homeslice, and watch a movie; nothing fancy. Almost like any other day ; )

Last day of Staycation

Friday was such a fun day. I relaxed in the morning, worked on a scarf and watched a Paul Newman movie with Emma in the early afternoon, and T got off from work early so we were able to check in at the Stephen F Austin that afternoon.

Because we don't have cable or anything like that, actual TV is a treat. Flipping channels I saw the intro of Thank You for Smoking, which is brilliant and hilarious (and why don't I own it?), so we watched that. Our wine and cheese tray came early on so we munched and sipped throughout the movie. After the movie we went to McCormick & Schmicks for happy hour (Pimms & lemonade/DosXX, blue crab rangoons / buffalo wings), then on to Cork & Co (Prosecco / Guinness). At Cork & Co we amused ourselves with the Table Topics.

Us at Cru trying to make a selection

From there we walked to Cru on Second Street (Champagne/ red wine, calamari), and it started raining when leaving so we hopped into Sullivan's (vodka tonic / Guinness), then up to Amsterdam Cafe (vodka tonic / beer). And finally, up Sixth Street for a couple slices of pizza to take back to the room.

In the morning we had hot breakfast in the cafe (cheese blintzes are wonderful; why do I never make them?) and then packed our things to head back to the crazy cats*. We had a fabulous night out.

M&S had the best happy hour food prices (next time will get the calamari there), Sullivans was the priciest place (no specials and their actual food was way out of my price range, but that's why I don't eat at steakhouses). Cru had nice service, and their calamari was delish but it was pricy. Cork & Co didn't have many food options, but they were friendly and it was more affordable. AC was empty as they were setting up for the band later, but it was very dark and laid back with loud rock music, like a bar should be. And pizza on 6th is *always* good.

*Seriously, they (especially The Emma) are crazy. They were running into the bedroom (she was chasing him) and because there's no carpet or rug for them to use as brakes, what do they do? Use the back wall as a springboard to go in the other direction. I'm not kidding! Totally ridiculous. Then Emma was whining/singing/humming to herself as she came out looking for the scarf, found it, bit an end, and does this to it. Later, while watching the movie with her, she was napping and at one point, was sleeping with her eyes open. Creepy.

Whipped In

TheKitchn.com posted a food lover's guide to Austin last week and it had some good suggestions. Under specialty stores it recommended Whip In, a place just north of 35 and Oltorf, that I had seen many times but never stopped. After reading that they had prepared indian food, I told T that we *had* to go.

When we got there, I had planned on just ordering something to-go, or getting something already prepared, but there was a little cafe area (some seating was old church pews) with dim lighting, tapestries and saris on the walls, and it was kinda cute, so T suggested we eat there. I ordered the mansoor dal & spinach on basmati, and T (refusing the try to Obama Chili) got the SoCo panaani sandwich, with roast beed, chutney and gorgonzola. The service was nice and food came out quickly. My rice bowl was delish, though how do you go wrong with rice and sauce?, and T's sandwich was good (i love naan).

After dinner we checked out the shop. Had a huge bag of ground corriander (i think it was corriander; don't remember) for $6. I mean HUGE. And another huge bag of peppercorns for $12. I am so going there when I need more spices. Usually I go to World Market first for those. (If you happen to know a south-austin ethnic store I should try for spices, please let me know.)
They also had a great selection of beers- bottles I'd never seen before, and good local/healthy pre-made products in the fridge. Their dolmas weren't the best i've had, but they were still good.

So, despite the pro-Obama (or pro-tyrant as T would say) posters and chili, it was alright. Pretty cheap (veggie dishes under 9, meat dishes under 11), but a very limited menu. But the prices for spices! Man. I'm going to need larger spice jars.

No more candy?

To treat myself for my birthday-week I went with T to Big Top on South Congress yesterday and did not have a good time this visit:
A) it was a jungle of whiny kids. terrible.
B and most importantly) they aren't carrying my little citrus slices! The horror! I really wanted them and can't exactly scoot to the mall's candy shop while I'm on vacation (not getting on 360 and Bee Cave is such a windy road; the candy isn't worth it).

These are what I was craving: Since I was robbed of my craving I got the regular citrus candies (some looked like tangerine segments and were very good!) and tried a few chocolates, which I never do; I usually stick to the fruits flavors. Grabbed a few chocolate covered gummy bears, choco covered banana chips (yum!), large whopper-type balls but the outer layer was mint-chocolate, a couple choco covered oreos, and yogurt covered raisins, which I have always liked but never buy and I can't think of why. They're so good! Everything I got was good actually, but i *really* wanted the citrus slices.

When I got up this morning, my baggie of jelly candies was empty. I'm blaming the cats, but I think we know who really ate them all last night.