Two days of highs in the 50s, and I’ve pulled out my peacoat, my tasseled NYC scarf and the space heaters. The joys of acclimating to Texas summers are few (though I’m almost certain my body adjusts perspiration and thirst levels as the heat wears on), and the joys of acclimating to Texas ‘winters’ are even harder to discover. You never know when it’ll suddenly be over and you’ll be wearing a layer for every degree it’s risen overnight (that’d be 50-plus layers sometimes, forgive the hyperbole!).
Speaking of adaptation, this song (“Furr”) is always in my head for days after I hear it, and I don’t even mind:
And on another video note, did you know that almost no stores sell video head cleaner tapes anymore? I went to exactly FIVE stores trying to find one this week, and of them only one clerk even pretended to know exactly what I was talking about but said that Target had stopped carrying them in the last week!
I was trying to watch some Jane Campion movies. She’s a quirky Australian director (I don’t think there’s a non-quirky Australian director, come to think of it!) whose movies seem to be funny, sweet and scary at the same time. I definitely recommend the DVDs of both “Sweetie” and “Holy Smoke” (both quite raw and not for the faint of heart, but touching and fascinating, too), but the third I rented, “Portrait of a Lady” was on VHS, and my VCR refused to play it for want of a cleaning. I had to return the tape before I could track down a cleaner — the video store has exactly one cleaner tape itself and would not lend it to me.
I met with a pair of friends, one of whom brought me her spare head cleaner, and a very excited dog this afternoon to eat super-trendy tart frozen yogurt (never, ever “fro-yo,” please!) from a trailer with a music-video-playing TV built into the side, and despite shivering a lot, I enjoyed the free unlimited toppings promotion and the always nice owner of Mambo Berry was in his usual pleasant form.
Mambo Berry, as captured by friend Tara M.
Whole Foods was doing ridiculous pre-Thanksgiving promotion today, too, and I had about a million free samples — Italian cream pound cake, wine (four kinds — about two teaspoons each), cheese (gouda, parmesan, pumpkin seed something, something creamy and Spanish, etc.) chocolate almond bark, three kinds of salsas, two kinds of cider, piping-hot coffee, bread and green bean and carrot slaw; and if I were a meat-eater I could have had my share of free whole, fresh oysters, too!
It was like a midday meal I hadn’t even planned, for free. Perfect. Plus they carry my latest addiction: Balsamic-Roasted Garlic and Red Onion Hummus, and its perfect partner, Black Bean Hummus (like chickpea hummus, but with black beans instead, and some jalapeno), both from Out to Lunch, a locally produced-and-sold brand of dips and sandwiches that sell for less than the national brands.
And tomorrow I get to see a dear friend I haven’t seen since she went off to do campaign work. We’ll be checking out the East Austin Studio Tour, in which something like 150 studios on Austin’s East Side open for guests (and buyers, I presume) for the weekend. I’m doubly excited.
See: http://www.eastaustinstudiotour.com
It’s good to know that you can get the “Out To Lunch” brand at the local Chevron!
I hadn’t noticed that! Too funny.