I love summer

It has been way too long since I posted here. In December, we went up to Michigan again for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. It was great to have a couple weeks of real winter with snow, but I can’t really see myself living there permanently. I mean, just today I tweeted that I’m ready for summer. And when I say that, I mean 100 degree Texas summer.

Cold really means cold

One thing that has surprised me here in Michigan is how incredibly cold the water is—and I’m not talking about the lakes, I’m talking about out of the faucet.

I’m used to the water in Austin where during the summer the “cold” water is pretty much room temperature. Here however, after a few seconds the water is so cold it makes your hands ache. I know this isn’t exactly the most interesting vacation update, but I just find it strange. It’s in the 70s and 80s during the day, and gets down into the 50s or 60s at night, and I wouldn’t think those temperatures would be cold enough to make the water so cold.

Michigan

For about a week Emily and I will be up in Leland, Michigan with Charley, visiting her parents. I think the highs her are in the 70s, which is a very welcome change from the 100+ degree heat in Austin. We flew in to Traverse City yesterday, then drove up to Leland which is on a small strip of land between Lake Michigan and Lake Leelanau. It’s such a narrow strip of land that we can walk to both lakes from the house. We walked to the Lake Michigan side last night, and the water is pretty cold (about the same as Barton Spring I think), but I waded in a little bit.

Leland is a very small town, and I think a lot of our time is going to be spent relaxing, playing games at the house and going to the lakes. It should be a pretty good week.

Shopping with a baby

Going to the grocery store (or any store for that matter) is definitely more challenging with a baby.

Now that Charley is a little older we’ve been taking her out with us more and we’ve noticed a disturbing thing: she LOVES the mall. Of course, I’m sure it’s just that her little sponge-brain enjoys all the people-watching she can do there, but I don’t want to start a trend with her where mall=entertainment. I mean, if a few years she’s going to want to buy shit while she’s there, right? And she’s going to use my or Emily’s money until she’s old enough to get a job and pull her own weight in this family—and that won’t be until she’s 8 or 9.

The UT Co-op has unnecessary LCD TVs

Okay, so I went to the co-op the other day to buy a pen, and this is my view while waiting in line to pay. Doesn’t this seem a bid excessive? I mean, do they really think they need a separate giant LCD tv for each line? Would 3 tvs not have done the trick?

Palm Pre, iPhone and WWDC

Well, here we are at WWDC eve. I meant to do a long post about my ongoing back-and-forth between the Palm Pre and the iPhone, but now that we’re likely about to get all the juicy iPhone 3GS details in about 10 hours I kinda don’t see the point.

When I first heard about the Pre, I was stoked. But with iPhone 3.0 firmware and the fact that my computer life pretty much revolves around Macs, I’m leaning more and more toward going back to the iPhone when the 3rd gen is finally released. The Pre is amazing, and from a general consumer perspective anything that keeps Apple on their toes is a good thing. I just don’t think it’ll be for me.

I’m trying to convince Emily to get one though

It’s crawfish, not crayfish. Look it up.

On Saturday, May 2, I was expecting a FedEx package. I get a little eager when I’m expecting something (a watch in this case), and I tend to check the front porch several times during the day. On what I think was the second check of the day, I opened the door and looked down to see this:

My first thought was that someone was watching and waiting to see the reaction of the dude that opens the door to see a creepy crawfish with a note attached sitting on his porch, so I slammed the door and ran up the stairs to see Emily. She was feeding Charley.

Me: “Okay, you wanna hear something weird?”

Em: Blank stare.

Me: “I was checking for my watch that’s supposed to be here today, and when I opened the door there’s a crawfish sitting on the front porch.”

Em: “A live one?”

Me: “No, a bright red one like it’s been cooked for a crawfish boil.”

Em: “Crawfish are gross.”

Me: “Ooh, I should take some pictures.”

Em: “Okay, but just don’t show them to me. Those things freak me out.”

I went downstairs, grabbed a plastic bag and my grill stick from the side porch, then went to the front door. I wasn’t THAT worried anymore about some 12-year-old hiding behind a tree and waiting to take a picture of my freakout. Besides, even I can appreciate that a picture of a 30-something dude on all fours in his doorway with a camera phone in one hand and a stick in the other, poking a crawfish, would be pretty funny. Video would be even better.

Anyway, I poked the crawfish to make sure it wasn’t spring-loaded, then threw it into the plastic bag using the stick (probably took four tries). Next it was time to read the note.

I was a little puzzled. Does someone think I’m Red Lobster’s CEO? Or was it not directed and me and more of a call-to-action type of thing? Then I wondered if any other porches in the neighborhood got crawfish with little environmental messages attached, and now I wish I had walked up and down the street to check. Either way it’s weird. If it was just us, then why us? And why was this someone walking/driving around with a cooked crawfish. If several houses got them, then the person must have had a whole bag of crawfish. That’s weird too.

Still crouched in the doorway, I flipped over the little strip of papaer.

So there we have it–it was RICARDO! I’ve known one Ricardo in the past ten years. He was a bartender I worked with at Manuels down on Congress Ave. Nice guy. Moved up north somewhere…Portland I think. He’s probably not the one that did it.

To the Ricardo who DID do it, why use a crawfish and not a lobster? After all, you ARE protesting “Lobstefest,” right? I guess if you were carrying 20 or so, crawfish are more manageable. Little piece of advice though, next time try replacing the crawfish with a $50 bill and change the note to read: “Go get yourself some lobster so you can really understand how “Lobsterfest” is hurting our waters. -Ricardo” Do that, and I’ll be MUCH more sympathetic to your cause.

Carnival!

On Saturday I decided to go with a few of my friends to one of those traveling carnivals (this one was set up in the parking lot of the Tony Burger Center in south Austin). In the true fashion of this particular set of friends, things moved MUCH slower than planned. I left Emily at the house with the little one because Emily’s cousin was over for a visit. I got to my friends’ house around 4, but instead of leaving as planned, we hung around for 2 hours. My friend’s son Neo is 7, so I hung out with him and we rode bikes and skateboarded in front of their house.

We finally made it to the carnival, and I was really surprised at how expensive it was. Tickets cost a dollar each, and most of the rides were between 4 and 5 tickets. They did have this deal where you could buy a wristband for something like $19.95 that would allow you to ride as many rides as you want, but for some reason no one took advantage of this. I think I was the only one who spent less than $20. I bought 14 tickets and rode 3 rides, but I also spent $7 for one of those “rides” where they attach a harness to your waist that is connected on both sides to these giant rubber band things that allows you to jump 20 feet into the air and do flips. Jacob and Neo rode this ride the same time I did, and in true ghetto style of a traveling carnival, one of Jacob’s rubber bands broke while he was jumping. The girl running the thing didn’t seem to think it was a problem though and just pulled Jacob down by the ankle so that he would fly up into the air again (they do that if you stop bouncing because you’re hoisted up and your feet can’t touch the inflated mat that’s underneath you).

Here are a few pics from the trip:

Ferris Wheel

View from the top of the ferris wheel

Neo on the ferris wheel

The Moby Dick

The Zipper, which I did NOT ride. Click for an explanation.

I also rode Pharo’s Fury with Jacob, Matt and Rob. It’s one of those giant boat rides that swings back and forth. We sat as close to the end as possible, because of course that’s the best spot since you go the highest. It was actually more fun than we had expected. Here’s a video from my phone:

All-in-all it was a fun day, although I do wish the timing of things had been different so that Emily and the little one could have been there too. Maybe next time.

Out for the weekend

So, this weekend we spent out-and-about in Austin. Saturday we left the little one with her grandmother and met up with Travis and Karla for a lat lunch. We went to El Chile, which was nice since it’s been probably a couple months since Emily and I have been there. I had one of their micheladas, which is a giant schooner of beer with a spicy concoction around the rim. Karla went with the Prickly Pear margarita and Trav picked a top shelf rocks rita. Karla’s looked the best, so of course I had to take a pic:

 

 

After El Chile, we picked up the little one from grandma’s, made a quick pit-stop at the house, then headed to Mozart’s for some coffee. The sun was going down and it was getting chilly, so we had our coffee, talked a little, then headed home. Here’s a view from the deck at Mozart’s:

 

Sunday was the last Sunday of the month and that meant it was time for the Silkenson family lunch at Central Market. Actually, the event is “sponsored” by my grandmother on my mom’s side, and my cousins from that side of the family usually come too, so I don’t really think it’s fair to attach the Silkenson name to it–let’s just call it a family lunch. Anyway, it was fun as usual. Emily and I took Charley and my brother Seneca and his wife brought their two kids: Hayden and Bailey. My brother Bala and his wife Amber weren’t able to make it, but they usually show up with their son Zayd.

(EDIT: My brother and his wife Molly were there too. He pointed this out to me via twitter and I think his feelings were a little hurt that I left him out of this post.)

Carting the little one around to so many places definitely makes things more complicated than when it was just me and Emily, but she makes up for it with her cuteness.

Thinking

Marc Savlov is an idiot.