Month: January 2002

car trouble

Something was wrong with my car .. I’m not sure what it was, but it could only be fixed in England. I was still here in Austin, and the car was Germany. Why you’d take a Volkswagen out of Germany to England to have it fixed is a mystery. So anyway, this mechanic (who I remember as being not exactly British) drove my car from Germany to England. Once it was fixed, I got a call (I think) that it was done, but I’d have to come get it myself. I don’t why he couldn’t just drive it back to Germany where he got it in the first place. … and that’s when I woke up.

It took me a few minutes to convince myself that my car was in good working condition and parked in the lot outside my apartment.

signage

Grabbed lunch at Thundercloud today .. I love the signs they have up on the wall behind the counter:

If you’re on a cell phone, you’re not in line

.. and ..

Cell phones make you invisible

sagweed?

My brain works weirdly sometimes .. well, my memory anyway .. Last night I was reading this book by Kinky Friedman (good read so far, by the way) and I finally realized that when he talked about the “dumper” that he was referring to the can (crapper, john, comode, restroom, lavatory, toilet, etc) .. dumper is just one name I hadn’t heard.

But the word made me remember an old radio commercial I heard in high school. I thought it was hilarious at the time because it was so random .. and I’ve always liked randomness 🙂 Anyway, it was an ad for a nightclub called The Brick .. I think it was in Dallas .. and I think this is their website.

Sadly, my brain somehow contains the exact wording of the last few lines …

” …. and like always, here at The Brick,
we guilt pudding thermoplasty, like a dumper herring slicer sagweed.
Trench fondle repercussions — asparagus me.”

what language is this …

I was stopped at a light on my way to work and this van drives by on the cross street, and on the side in big letters it says COOL__ and something about insulation and then above that are the words

Heatilator certainTeed

I suddenly thought I was dyslexic …

dalmation mice!

On Saturday, we watched The Royal Tenenbaums at that theater in the the Arboretum.
It was good .. funny, but not completely funny (in a good way).
I heard someone compare it to Rushmore … after I thought about it, this makes sense: they are both stories about some fairly messed up people; these people are [somewhat angry to very angry] with each other (or one person in particular); some of the people are/were smarter than average kids; and both movies star Bill Murray (always a plus).

Alright, that’s not a wonderful comparison … not being very articulate today. They’re both the same “type” of movie … if that makes any sense .. it might if you’ve seen them both.

Anyway: good movie, very funny, interesting characters, good story…

Friday 5ive

I figured, “why not?”… so, here I am jumping on the bandwagon, trying to be like the cool kids 😉

1. What was your first job? In junior high I worked at a grocery store as a “porter”. That’s a nice way of saying I got to clean up the store. Sweep the floors (and grocery stores have a lot of floor), empty the trash cans, clean the bathrooms, wipe display cases… Plus, any time they called “wet cleanup in aisle 9” over the PA, I was the one heading to aisle 9 with a mop and bucket. And it was almost always aisle 9 — that’s where the little jars of baby food were. Nice mushy combination of glass and baby food. Still think of that as the worst job I ever had.. ‘spose it could’ve been worse though.

2. How old were you when you had your first kiss? … uh, no comment .. heh
it’s a secret, not telling 🙂

3. What was your first car? What happened to it? The first car I drove was a 1985 Oldsmobile Delta Royale (or Delta 88 or something). It was a great gray whale of a car: 8 cylinders, 4 doors, giant bench seats, crappy crackly radio/cassette deck, and a ceiling with loose fabric cause someone put their hands all over it .. hehe. But it was a great car .. which is to say it was a useable means of transportation. It was also a conversation piece. (“Dang, you’re car is huge!” “So … does the rudder ever go out on this thing?”)
It died of extreme old age (about 14). Specifically, the austomatic transmission was slipping and generally not doing its job (i.e., allowing to car to accelerate to a decent speed). Of course, I found this out driving home from College Station to Dallas one weekend. It never left Dallas after that.

4. What was your first concert? Live. 1994 or 5 or something .. I probably still have the ticket stub somewhere. I went because I all my friends were going and it was summertime and I was bored .. I didn’t particulary like Live (didn’t hate either though). Opening acts were PJ Harvey and Veruca Salt and I think I enjoyed those a bit more .. the whole thing was fun though.

5. How do you plan to spend your weekend? hmmm … go to a concert (heh, what a coincidence) to hear my brother sing … see a movie (The Royal Tenenbaums looks good, or A Beautiful Mind, or The Majestic)