This Is A Great Reason Why Austin is Cool

SXSW (South by Southwest) is a music/film/multimedia festival held every year in Austin. I saw this video on the plane on my way back from Boca Raton recently. Never heard of either of these people, but I like it. SXSW isn't even the "premier" music festival in Austin. (See ACL for those honors.) Anyway, the music in this town is unbelievable. Seriously.

The Worst Political Ad I've Ever Seen: Local Austin Politics

This is airing regularly during prime time here.

We Do Dallas

We spent the day in Dallas the other day. After being told that it would be stereotypical Texas as in Big hats, Big hair and Big belt buckles, I can say that we were pleasantly surprised. In less than 24 hours, we saw(drove by) Temple University, Baylor University, Texas Stadium home of the Dallas Cowboys, the American Airlines Arena (where the Dallas Mavericks play,) the American Girl store (which was far more impressive than you might think!) the Cotton Bowl, the exterior of the King Tut exhibit, DFW International airport and the Dallas Aquarium which is the coolest landlocked aquarium I've ever seen. If you don't believe me about the aquarium, ask Brendan:

Bail Out Home Owners Too

So, with all the bank bailouts going on, and people still having their mortgages foreclosed, the whole issue seems very unfair to average American consumers. It occurred to me that a very easy thing for the fed to implement to give relief on both sides of the issue would be to abolish mortgage insurance immediately. This would be like giving everyone that is upside down on their mortgage an extra $200-300 per month instantly. Just an idea.

Funniest Homeless Signs

They didn't have my favorite which is "Parents killed by ninjas. Need money for Kung-Fu lessons" but these are still pretty funny.

Catfish Parlour

In my continuing vein of writing about local Austin restaurants, let me add to my collection my personal assessment of the "Catfish Parlour." Tonight, on the recommendation of a few websites we stopped for dinner at the aforementioned establishment because of descriptions of its good food, unique vibe and kid friendly atmosphere. I won't burden readers with too heady of a description, however, my firm beliefs in the following were reaffirmed:
1. Restaurants without windows should be avoided.
2. Catfish should never be eaten. Ever. Catfish are bottom feeders and taste like it.
3. Just because your cups have bite marks in them, doesn't make your restaurant "kid friendly."


It's good that we will be in Oregon for 2 weeks in December because I plan on eating nothing but Salmon...

Oh, and if you want to read something funny, check this out.