Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Cover Up


What, a tent for the car? That's right: covered parking here is like the equivalent of your own free parking space in Cambridge or Boston (except a zillion times easier to come by).

Monday, January 26, 2009

Sad Cactus


This is one sad little cactus. I guess some of them don't like the "winter" in Austin.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Mural


Pretty cool mural on a building. The yellow & red parts are all just painted on.


Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Devil Tree

Apparently there's this tree called the Mountain Cedar that lives in Central Texas & parts of Oklahoma. Sounds nice, eh? Pleasant name and all. Yeah, well, chlamydia sounds pleasant too and from what I understand, it sure isn't. Same with these trees. And their damn Cedar or Juniper Pollen.

Allergies, you think, not so bad. Lemme tell you, friend, you are WRONG.

If you zoomed up real close on grains of this Cedar Pollen, you'd see each one has a pair of devil horns.



So although it may be in the 60s & 70s and sunny down here (and for the next 10 days, which as long as the forecast shows), it is also slightly hell-ish. Well, unless you don't enjoy breathing normally.

PS: I also caught some sort of virus. I am a WINNER this week.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Inauguration Day '09


Figured this would be appropriate for today, inauguration day.

(it's the Texas flag, for all y'all who needed that pointed out to you)

Monday, January 19, 2009

Cars for Jesus


I doubt you can read the marker writing on this car cover but it says "This car belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ".

In 4 places.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Ain't Kinky



This amused me.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Starr

So the other day the baby & I were out for a wandering walk in a very residential neighborhood when I saw this sign:






What?! I turned the baby's stroller so she could look in too.

And this is what we saw: I think it's a pig but since it wouldn't turn around, it was hard to tell. We'll go back & I'll get a better photo.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Mailbox


Check out this random mailbox!!

House #8, perhaps? Awesome.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Local Spoken Here


I nanny over in the SoCo area now & bring my camera on some of the walks that the baby I and I go on... SoCo is the "real" Austin, the heart of the "Keep Austin Weird" world. It is pretty awesome: little independent stores, hippies, crazy liberals, houses in vibrant colors... so there should be some decent photos coming!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Readjusting & Caffeine

Little Things I Have to Re-adjust to After 1 Month in the North:
  1. Driving nicer, not like a Bostonian.
  2. Speaking of driving, making sure to not parallel park too close to other cars.
  3. Friendly strangers.
  4. Friendly strangers who carry on long conversations with me.
  5. Saying excuse me when passing someone in a store aisle.
  6. My use of the word "wicked".
  7. Only sorority girls carry Vera Bradley bags.
  8. How much the temperature changes throughout the day.
  9. To hold the handle down for a long time to get our toilet to flush normally.
  10. The frequency of hearing Spanish spoken.
  11. The sun!
  12. Frustratingly sparse NPR coverage (5-9am, 5-8pm).
  13. Lack of sidewalks on side roads (not cool when you're taking a baby for a walk).
  14. Damn speedbumps!
  15. The intense amount of burnt orange everywhere.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Back in ATXion



Despite an unexpected morning snow, a delay in Boston and a run through Atlanta's airport, I made it to Austin last night.

Austin. Where flowers are blooming in January despite it being in the 30s-50s today.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

FYI

I'll be leaving the Yankee North next Monday... back to the Scary South it is...

Monday, January 5, 2009

Fiesta

Hook 'em