OR: Spending time in Texas is fun but may be hazardous to your health.

( Cast your mind back, far back into the distant past, two weeks ago today, when turkey was a hope for the future, and it wasn't nearly so cold. )

That's con and Austin (sort of.) The rest of the week perhaps tomorrow?

I thought scheduling the ever-loving life out of the next two weeks would snap me out of this funk. It did well enough for the weekend but today is grey, blue, and various shades of ugh.

Friday-- Dinner at Pitfire and four one-act plays by Noel Coward: Well, dinner was kind of the highlight of the evening. The plays were alright, actually kind of reminded me of Roald Dahl's surprisingly dark short stories. Some humor in the dim bits of life, but mostly lots of unhappiness. Yay? The Unintentionally Hilarious award goes to the waltz sung in the last play. Anybody seen All That Jazz? Remember that awful sexy sex airplane sex musical number with the song "Take off with us/ Take off with us...?" The first two lines of the waltz had exactly that beat, tone, count, everything but the words. It was all I could do to not giggle.

Saturday-- SoCal Games Day! Arrived a bit late, but played lots of fun stuff and stuck to my no fried foods pledge despite the delicious onion rings at Everest. Met up with playmayt for the all-star cast of the year: Eddie Izzard, Tim Curry, Billy Connolly, Emily Mortimer, Jane Leeves, Tracey Ullman, Jim Piddock, and Eric Idle in Idle's new play, "What About Dick?" How did all those names fit in one little paragraph, much less on the same stage? It was a staged reading of Idle's "film for radio," presented as a radio program with actors sitting at the back of the stage when quiet and sharing three microphones to speak their parts. It was funny, it was filthy, and Tim Curry's voice is the single most beautiful sound I have ever heard in my life, but the play itself wasn't that good. It felt very disconnected and patched together and the extended EM Forster/Howard's End/films of Emma Thompson & Anthony Hopkins parody just didn't work for me. The people watching was fun, though. Lots of Brits, movers & shakers and stars and such, and I'm pretty certain I saw Jeff Lynne striding up the aisle wearing sunglasses during intermission (really? 9.30pm inside the theatre and really? O... K...) Billy Connolly was the hit of the night with an incomprehensible Scottish detective, and Eddie Izzard was very cute while dropping things and being silly, and, well, everyone was excellent, but. It's no Spamalot.

Sunday-- Din Tai Fung! More Games! Agricola, which is unbelievably amazing. But I was hitting my MustHaveProtein wall so bailed, only to find that I'd left my lights on and my car was dead. Chris was very kind and as he put it, jumped me outside. Made it home safe, toasted up a little dinner and happily watched Torchwood.

Monday, today-- Awful migraine kept me home this morning and I've felt sick all day, but cannot stay home tonight as I have Spoon tickets. Any other band... any less money spent... and it would be me and my jammies and the Doctor Who S2 disc 6 of special features, fer sure. As it is, I will rally. I must. "Anything You Want" demands it.
( Rest of the schedule for this week and next back here: )

Dude. You guys. It is only Day Two. And I have not had a Frito pie since I don't know when. And yet. Today. All I want in the great big world. Is a Frito pie.

Stupid fried corn chips.

Like many awesome things in this crazy world, this comes from stepliana:

Comment on this post. I'll choose seven userpics from your profile and you'll reply here (or you know, your own journal, whichever), explaining what they mean and why you're using them. Post this along with your answers in your own journal so others can play along.

The 7 icons she asked me about:

1. Mary Blair girl:
I <3 Mary Blair. Despite my overwhelming love for Frank & Ollie, Blaine Gibson, Bob Gurr, Eyvind Earle, and hundreds of other animators, artists, and imagineers who have shaped, colored, influenced, and built the Disney look over the years, her round world and use of color has really stuck with me. I believe this little girl comes from concept art she did for Three Caballeros. She's just darling. She usually comes into play on basic posts for which I have no real theme. She's just sorta me.

2. Fincher:
This is a quote from a movie I absolutely hated. It's on Brad Pitt's Tshirt in the photo on the cover of a magazine in Full Frontal, undeniably the worst movie by Steven Soderbergh. This waste of celluloid was made pretty soon after Joe Mechanic lost his job over the whole David Fincher's Fight Club not making a dime debacle, and this T was apparently Soderbergh's/Pitt's take on the deal. Or something. Maybe? At any rate, I have loved the quote ever since, say it all the time, and it's the only good thing in the movie. Seriously, don't watch it. It will make you question humanity. I use this when talking about movies or being kinda ranty.

3. My OTC:
If you've spent any time in any of the many terrifying TV fandoms, OTP means One True Pair to you, or the couple the show should never screw with. Likewise, OTC means One True Crack, as in the single substance I could never live without. This is a picture of a Chick-Fil-A chicken biscuit. I cannot live without these, even if all I can do all too often is dream about them. This is my One True Crack. I have another icon I use for all posts and comments to food comms, and use this when talking about food in my own lj or other people's personal ljs.

4. Cluedo:
I game, therefore I am. Clue is one of the first boardgames I remember playing when I was little. My wonderful and ever-patient babysitter Katrice used to play Clue with me for hours when I was six. I don't know how she did it. But I love boardgames still, and this usually pops up when I post about them.

5. I will cut you:
This kid is pissy. This kid is in no mood. This kid is not playing around. This kid will cut you. When I feel like that, he comes out to scowl. Think of him as an early warning detection system for when not to screw with me.

6. My Steve w/chopsticks:
My Steve! With chopsticks! One of the coolest men in the world, using the best eating utensils ever devised. Really, they are so useful, I am not even kidding. All the noodle problems presented by pasta, soup, all that? Dangers of being rude in not eating everything on your fork when attempting to enjoy dumplings and such? Solved by chopsticks. Also, he's cute in this and I really liked the colors and the whole look. That green by his arm is great. I use this when talking about food (I have lots of food icons cause I talk about it a lot, duh) or the overall awesomeness of My Steve.

7. Woo Woo for Lloyd:
Another Woot! icon, so we don't all get sick of OMFG YAY or Oh the thrills! Except I don't use this very often. Actually, I forgot I even had it. Thanks for reminding me. I'll have to use this more often.

That's it. Let me know if you want in on this kooky action.

Here's a video tour of mine:



OH WAIT. DID YOU SEE THAT GUN? AND THE WINDOWS BEING SHOT OUT? THAT'S CAUSE SOME KID MADE A FREAKING COUNTER-STRIKE MAP OF MY HIGH SCHOOL.

And it was on the freaky right-wing conservative nutball news:



So yeah. Kinda weird to watch a video on youtube of someone stalking the halls of Clements with a large gun. But do I think the kid deserved to be expelled? NO. It's a video game. Talk to him about why he did it (cause odds are his motives were "it'd be cool" and not at all violent,) and move on.

Ah, Fort Bend. Where it's not only the heat that's oppressive.

Why must they have it in Orange County? These are the questions that nagged my tired mind last night.

Hit the Orange County Fair yesterday with playmayt to see Chris Cornell and enjoy decadent fair food. The structure of that last sentence should in no way be interpreted as representing my priorities, cause the fair food was way more important to me than Cornell's show. Sorry music lovers, I've never been much of a Cornell fan. "Black Hole Sun" makes me want to carve my own eyes out and stuff them in my ears so that I neither have to see the awful nightmare inducing video nor hear the annoying whiny song. But playmayt's beloved Yogi is in Cornell's band (and a fricking amazing rock star of a musician) so we went. We ate. We conquered. ( Disgustingly in depth food reporting back here. )

We really only indulged in one non-food paying fair activity: we visited the petting zoo and ponied up $2 each for pellets and oats so the animals would love us. Boy, did they love us. Goats and deer like to eat skirts. No, I'm not being risque, I'm serious. They will try to eat the skirt off your ass. Make sure you keep a hold of it if you don't care to flash everyone else in the pen. The llamas were a bit standoffish, but I decided that was because they were pissed that they had to mix with the hoi polloi after the Echolls sold the estate. Wouldn't you be? The ducks hid under a net full of alfafa the whole time. The baby roos (or were they wallabees?) tried to stay out of reach, but were eventually petted. The pigs all either slept or ignored us. The chickens didn't care that anyone was there. The sheep were just after food. But the baby goats. The really tiny baby goats. When I knelt down to pet the littlest ones, the tiny white goat jumped right into my lap for snuggles and pets. Such a dear. I had to pick her up and put her back on the ground. Such little loves. If I had space I would keep a goat. And make lots of cheese and cajeta.

Then Cornell. Opening act Puddle of Mudd was meh to ok, mainly because music where the lead singer sounds constipated is not generally my cup of tea. We giggled and snarked through most of their set until the last song, when suddenly lyrics from "Summer Lovin'" were worked in. We loved it. All the girls in the audience sang along, especially at the "Tell me more, tell me more, did you get very far/ Tell me more, tell more, like did he have a car?" bit. The guys just kinda sat there in confused silence. Was a nice table to have turned.

I enjoyed Chris Cornell more than I thought I would. Like I said, I've never been a fan, and pretty much just went along for fair, food, and to see Yogi. I was not disappointed. I had more fun than I thought I would. I knew more songs than I thought I would. And I really liked the newer solo stuff. High points:

The James Bond song. Great song from a great Bond movie. This was probably the thin edge of the wedge in changing my anti-Cornell stance.

"Doesn't Remind Me of Anything." I love this song and totally did not realize it was him. playmayt, I lied. This is Audioslave, not Temple of the Dog. My bad.

Acoustic "Billie Jean." While I have heard it described as 'horrible, like "I dare you to actually listen to the whole thing" terrible.' (and that just this morning,) playmayt and I decided early on that the earnestness was a joke and giggled the whole time. At least, I hope it's a joke. If he's actually serious, then I see the horrible and raise you a burn it burn it get it away from me.

After the show we were hungry again (what? we hadn't eaten in over two hours. that's how it works at county fairs.) so we hit the food stands once again. I gave into my craving for a second Krispy Kreme chicken sandwich, which was also delicious despite the replacement of fried chicken breast with breaded tenders and playmayt had bacon and seasoning salt soaked roasted corn on the cob. Happy times for all. On to sleep. After the hour in the car to get back to civilization, of course. And thus another county fair ended in gluttony, exhaustion, and dazed stumbling to the car. Personal triumph: I managed to not fall asleep in the car on the way home. Yay.

IT LIVES!



Now, I have seen cooler grooms' cakes myself, in the shape of the great state of Texas and the most awesome record player ever, but this. This is sweet.

Stolen from Kapgar. If you don't know him, you should pop on over and meet him. Totally worth it.

( Alphabet Soup: )

We're walking along the Battery this afternoon. We came all the way down Rainbow Row (see yesterday's pictures) and are strolling the raised waterwalk. I haven't seen the Atlantic Ocean in years, but it's pretty similar to the Pacific, just on the wrong side.

I took a lot of pictures of houses that day. A LOT. Perhaps two or three days worth. And enough of one house alone to fill a whole day, maybe. We'll see.



There are a remarkable number of flags on the houses along the Battery.

Dinner in Atlanta, and then on to Charleston! Sorry, no pics of the glorious road food along the way.