Texas Blue Lime Productions

His name is Ben Lerman and he plays the ukulele.

Because I listen to Keith and the Girl, I knew of Ben Lerman and his melodic-with-a-ukulele genius. Ben has some great stories that he has turned into song. He also does the occasional cover song that fits his shtick. His material is NSFW (not safe for work), but this post on our blog is.

We arrived early and had a drink (and I worked on a couple of Christmas gifts); that was the best decision of the night. We took the best seat in the house, the couch. A few minutes later, another couple arrived and when they rounded the corner, said, “oh, someone is already sitting on the couch.” So, we made room and invited them join us. That was the second best decision of the night! Fositi, Shane, (and later their friend Chris who joined us) were hilarious and kept us in stitches until Ben’s show. They were all there to see the band that Ben was opening for.

When they asked me about Ben, I didn’t really know how to describe him except that he’s a great comic and his tag line: “My name is Ben Lerman and I play the ukulele.” I hoped that they wouldn’t be disappointed.

Before Ben took the stage a couple of tiny acts did a couple of numbers each. One even played the ukulele. I thought it was a little like stealing Ben’s thunder, but he took it all in stride and thanked all the performers by name when it came his turn….and then he blew them all out of the water!

His first song, “My name is Ben Lerman and I play the ukulele,” made us all giggle. But just one song in and our laughter was boisterous. If Ben is going to be near you on his tour (Texas, California, Colorado, New York), you simply must make an effort to see his show. He has some great stories and songs and is a genuinely nice guy who wants to meet his fans. I promise you’ll have a great time.

The super-best part is that we made new friends in the process.

TwitPic
please forgive the poor quality phone camera

http://benlerman.net/
@BenLerman on Twitter

(The Customer is) NotAlwaysRight.com is one of my favorite blogs. Since I’m also a huge Legally Blonde fan, this one cracked me up!

Getting To The Root Of The Problem

So, today on Twitter (and through either Foursquare which I play or Gowalla which I’d play except it crashes my phone), a guy I’ve met like-two-times-in-really-crowded-environments-&-he’d-never-remember-me situations posted where he was. He was Black Friday shopping at Toy Joy.

What? Did I read that right? Toy JOY? TOY Joy?

Did he just say that out loud? Does his mom read his Tweets?

Read the rest of this entry »

(The Customer Is) Not Always Right is a great blog with some funny, funny stories about the stuff people try to get away with.

Go read this one:
Cheese?

Last weekend, we went on a tour of the condos downtown hosted by the wonderful guys at The GoodLife Team. WOW! What fun! If you get the chance to do this, act fast. It was free to attend, but there were only 30 spots and they filled up in 48 hours. The next one is November 13th.

First Stop: The Austonian

Austin’s tallest building. The ride to the 56th floor in an outdoor cage/construction elevator was a thrilling experience. The amenities at this place are going to be fabulous. It even comes with a 24-hour concierge. The models are gorgeous, but unnecessary since the view of Hill Country is so spectacular. Even if we could afford it, though, I’m not sure it’s the right fit for us. It’s going to be gorgeous, though, when finished.

We rode 56 stories up in an external open-air/cage construction elevator!

Looking down on the Frost Tower

The view from the future restaurant.

Looking West

Looking East

Second: The Spring

This was my clear favorite of what we saw. I liked the layout of the units and I could “see” us living in them.

Third: Bridges on the Park

This one is a boutique building, so it was dwarfed in size by the other properties we saw. Emil and I both like the larger facilities and the numerous amenities you get with the additional residents chipping in. It’s a great little building, though, and has a fabulous view of the park and immediate access to the lake, trails, and a pitch/putt golf course. One of their claims to fame is that residents trim down when they move in.

Fourth: The Shore

I didn’t care for the model we saw at The Shore, but the amenities of the facility are amazing. The pool and party deck looked like something out of CSI Miami. The night-time views of the city, watching sunset, and watching the bats emerge from the Congress bridge was a great cap to the evening.

Sunset View from The Shore

Bats Emerge at Sunset

In Sum

This are, of course, just a sampling of the range of what’s available. Even as we talked on the tour, I could tell that the Realtors had other ideas for places that would be a good fit for us. I don’t know how they did it. They were able to keep up with all 30 of us, what we liked/didn’t, what felt like a good fit, what amenities were available at each place.

Thank you, Todd and Carlos, for an amazing tour and a fabulous education.

We would love to live downtown. We end up down town a lot for events and things, it would make us more centrally located, and it’s more our style than a house since there is practically no maintenance. Emil would even drive against traffic to get to work, shortening his little commute even more.

The funny guys at xkcd bring us this Tech Support Cheat Sheet.

OMG, I totally saw this woman at the library, today. She had pasty-white foundation with not-for-her vibrant red lips. It was terrible.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

We don’t want to jinx anything with the contract and pending sale of the house, but we also know that both our vehicles are on their last legs: they are 9 years old![1] And, my truck qualifies for the cash-for-clunkers program if we can catch it when it has money.

With all that has happened in the last few years, we never have gotten around to replacing his car. We’ve had a couple of little uh-oh scares with both our vehicles in the last few months, so when we close on the house, we plan to replace my truck since it has the most mileage and wear.

Tonight, we drove the 2010 Toyota Prius and the 2009 Scion xD and liked them both. We also looked at—and lauged at—the Smart for Two. There is about a $10,000 price difference between the Prius and the xD, so we’ll more likely consider the Scion. The one we drove is “electric wasabi” green and had a ton of nice features inside. We also stopped at Car Max to see what they had. There are some very good deals, there, too. We just found that you have to be careful. Some of the cars there seem like a great deal, but we suspect are going to be expensive to maintain (mileage, parts/repairs, etc.).

We aren’t going to buy anything until after the house closes, but it was nice to look for and drive a new car.

[1] In 2000, I stopped to get gas at an Exxon station in College Station. I was being “good” and filled up with 94 octane. Unfortunately, the gas tank in the ground had been filled with diesel! (Wellborn Petroleum’s mistake and payment for repairs is it’s own story.) Nearing the end of the warranty and with no promise from Nissan that I’d not have problems in the future, we replaced the truck. Within a month, Emil’s truck died. So, the day we went to pick up my new truck, we also bought him a new car. Two new cars at once almost killed us, but it had to be done. A couple of years later, we wanted to go ahead and replace Emil’s car (since we had cheaped out on it) but then ended up getting a new house instead!

We love to “adventure” together. Any time we have to go somewhere new, we make a game of it. Thanks to Emil, we have always taken the odd routes. Thanks to VZ Navigator (a GPS navigation system built into our Verizon phones), we can wander off any beaten path and still find our way. We both have a good sense of direction, but it’s nice to have technology when we want to be somewhere specific at a certain time. Thanks to technology, we frequently take the odd routes. On our last trip in separate vehicles from Austin to Bryan, we found a castle. Yes, a castle. It’s in Pflugerville. I’m sure we couldn’t find it again.

Since we’ve been in ATX, we’ve tried to take all the strange roads. You might remember we got lost on West Cow, but we have also found several short cuts to our home.

• One Saturday morning, I was supposed to meet Beth at Dream Dinners. I’ve been wanting to do the assemble-your-own meal thing for years! I even had people lined up to go with me (to Village Table in Houston) two different times, but things fell through—for good reason—both times.
• I tried Super Suppers in College Station, but they quit doing the assemble-it-yourself system in favor of their it’s-made-for-you version. While the food was good enough, it was difficult to get in and didn’t let me omit the things Emil won’t eat. It was too much hassle.
• I considered Mom’s Meals, but they were all too carby.
• I ordered “mixes” from another company in Hearne, and again, they were all pasta/rice based and meant to be made with ground beef. I can get Hamburger Helper at HEB, thankyouverymuch. [yes, their versions were much tastier than anything store bought, they just weren't healthy.]

So, when Beth told me about Dream Dinners, and then shared a meal with me at their home, I was dying to sign up. I made plans to go with her to her appointment on Saturday.

In learning to get there, I found a fun route down a winding road, so I awakened Emil-the-adventurer to join me. For a couple of reasons, we got lost on the way, and I joined Beth a little late. I still had a fabulous time assembling stuff and learning how the whole thing works. I signed up for July on the spot! At least some of our cooking will be both easy and healthy.

{Trust me, this part sounds boring, but there is a punch line.}

• Emil & I ended up all the way back at the Arboretum for “breakfast” at almost noon.
• When we emerged, the battery on the car was dead.
• Luckily, we found a nice guy (who was wearing a Thai Coca-Cola tshirt like the one Stephanie gave Emil when she came back from an entomology trip in 2006) to give us a jump.

While we kept the car running, we used VZ Navigator to help us find a battery store and went to a National Tire and Battery. Guess what they didn’t have? Batteries. Why? Because they are getting a new product line and some dolt ensured that their “bad/old” batteries were removed, first, to make room for the new ones they were yet to receive. They didn’t cover up the words “and Battery” in the name… Why would they take out all the batteries and then leave these poor stores with nothing? I Tweeted the product change #FAIL while Emil found AutoZone. We bought a battery with the car running, (broke the apartment rules and) installed the battery (quickly) in our parking lot. $90 later and we are ready to start the car!

After half of a day of some serious adventure, we felt it was in our destiny for the weekend and followed a route to some new homes in ATX. We can’t buy until our house in Bryan sells. wink-wink-nudge-nudge. The homes called Agave are 10 architects’ 50 designs that are funky/odd. Normally, this would be right up our alley, but these are lame.

• The first floors are “polished” concrete, so they didn’t spend the money on flooring.
• The stairs and upstairs are bamboo, but the “kick” part of the stairs is painted white wood, which is already nasty just from viewers.
• The homes all face west, so the A/C bills are going to be a nightmare.
• Most of them don’t have garages. The ones with carports are single-car.
• The HOA amenities include an unused community garden and some single-lot-sized parks.
• The purposely-not-mentioned “amenities” include views of a trailer park, a train track along the neighborhood, and close proximity to the water-treatment plant.
• They expect $220-350K for a home that is way east of I-35 with few interior features just for a view of a very distant downtown.
• Oh, and you have to drive through some shady stuff to get to downtown.
• What a joke!
• We were reminded of how happy we are to have a Realtor. Thanks, @bennrosales!!!

Our next adventure consisted of finding cushions to support us on the futon in the living room and to serve as a headboard in our room. Regardless of the kind of home, it seems that setting it up is a very long process. After moving from a 3+1/2/2.5/2 home to a 2-2 apartment, who’d have thought we’d need anything??!?

Next, we finally found the adventure we’d set out for on Saturday morning. We followed the long/winding road to both some exquisite and some adorable neighborhoods. We also took some routes through nearby neighborhoods. We passed the very park where Beth and Marc took us (and their dogs) for an afternoon romp.

All in all, it was a great weekend of adventure…and one of many we hope to have in our new city!

[and, as this post is being posted quite late, I'll say that we are still struggling to find/make time in our new town to do the things it offers.]