August 15, 2001

What's Up Now

After the 10-Q was filed for the quarter, I took a day "off" last Friday, as did my mother, and we spent the weekend doing some bricolage. We put two coats of paint on my garage, so it looks like it belongs with the house instead of like an alien building that just landed during a tornado or something. We also drilled holes for new kitchen cabinet knobs, and replaced the stupid formica/Corian knobs on the new side of the kitchen with more authentic glass ones. Then we watered the lawn, and plastered all the cracks in the sheetrock that popped up when the foundation work was done. That way I can do some interior painting, and put up curtains and and put in crown molding like I've always wanted to do. Not exactly a restful weekend, but we got a lot accomplished. I'm also hoping to get some landscaping advice so I can get some plants/trees/shrubs established this fall. Whew!

I have also been kind of a social butterfly; I'm meeting lots of new people, some of whom are interesting in a dating kind of way, but no real thunderbolts exactly. My friend Shannon is dating Garth Adam, the bass player for "Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts," so I'm going to the show at Stubb's on Saturday, which should be fun and quite a scene. Last year, there were a number of real Hollywood stars and tons of wanna-bes and wanna-sleep-with-Russell-Crowes hanging around. Kinda weird for Austin.

I'm also planning a trip to D.C. in early October to visit a good friend of mine from college. I'm looking forward to a more in-depth visit to the city; my previous forays were choir- or protest-march related, and I didn't get to see any of the museums, or get official tours of the monuments, etc. Smithsonian, here I come!

August 1, 2001

Letter to the Austin Chronicle

Regarding Mme. Chastenet de Géry's rant about the wastefulness of other restaurants' huge portions in her Starlite restaurant review: To a certain extent, I agree, but hasn't she ever heard of a to-go box? I don't ever leave any significant amount of food on my plate, but rather always ask to take it home, where it usually makes an easy second meal. If it's hot outside and I can't leave it in the car or carry it around, I give it to a homeless person, something I also have done in San Francisco and New York. Perhaps asking for a to-go box or tinfoil is considered impolite or uncool, but I think it's immoral to waste food when so many people in our own community are going hungry, and if I were on a date with someone who insisted on leaving half his meal behind, it would be our last. I agree that most restaurant portions tend to be huge, and that it's often difficult to finish all of just one entrée, much less several courses. This is partly because Americans tend to eat just one all-inclusive entree, say, a pasta dish that also contains a lot of meat or vegetables, rather several separate courses as they do in Europe. But I just see large portions as an opportunity to skip the cooking on two nights, and during summer in Texas, that's a blessing!