Used CDs and Frozen Custard

Another beautiful Saturday. We wandered through some of the shops on North Lamar, including Whole Earth Provisions, which sells all sorts of high end "green" toys, clothes and gizmos, Jaya Furniture and its neighbor The Khazana, also a furniture store. We had success at Cheapo Disks, which is perhaps the best used CD (and LP, and DVD) store we've ever seen. And there was pretty stuff on the brick walls.

But then it was getting warm, and time for a frosty treat.

We made our way to Sandy's Hamburgers, located on Barton Springs Road since 1947. Sandy's was named for the daughter of the original owners, but has since been passed through the family and now sold. But Sandy's is still just a little burger joint in a shack. We were drawn there because it serves frozen custard -- an ice cream-like concoction that we had heard of but had never tried. We spent perhaps 15 minutes there, repeatedly giving ourselves brain freeze while a steady stream of people walked away happy with cheeseburgers and malts. Jon got the vanilla malt, so thick you needed a spoon (see picture above). I had the vanilla-chocolate frozen custard mix, delivered appropriately in a wafer cone. While it didn't change our lives, it hit the spot. Next time we'll try the burgers.

Alamo Drafthouse: Bucket of Ice Cold Movies

I heard about the Alamo Drafthouse on one of our visits to Austin before we decided to make it our home. A movie theater that serves food and beer at your seat while you watch? Of course I was intrigued.

Rachel and I made our first trip to the downtown branch of the Drafthouse on Christmas day, keeping with the age-old tradition among us members of the Tribe. The movie we saw was not one of our all-time favorites, but the theater itself is very cool. As a warm-up to I Am Legend, the theater ran a few rather funny clips from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air along with the video for Parents Just Don't Understand in place of the usual elevator music and dim lights. It also screened some previews to a few upcoming events. In addition to standard first-run fare, the Alamo often stages special screenings. If you're a fan of Napoleon Dynamite, the Alamo is screening it with a live appearance by Uncle Rico! Another upcoming special, Dark Side of the Rainbow, features the Wizard of Oz with the soundtrack replaced by Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon -- so the overly curious can see if the rumors are true that the album was recorded in sync with the movie. Too bad we just missed what would have been my personal favorite: Booger from Revenge of the Nerds speaking about Harry Nilsson's The Point!(hey Rachel Z., you made a great Arrow!), as well as singing songs from the album/film in the lobby between shows. Now if they can only get Lamar Latrell to present something about Paris is Burning, my life would be complete.

The menu is fairly typical bar food, with dishes named after cinematic tidbits. While tempted by the Smokey and the Bacon sandwich, I ended up ordering a "Royale with Cheese" burger. Food was decent, beer was cold, and the attitude was great! They've worked out a food and drink ordering system that manages to keep the noise to a minimum. And they won't tolerate noisemakers! To give you a taste, here's a clip featuring former Texas governor, the late Ann Richards:

There should be a theater like the Alamo in every major city. Maybe I should make that my personal crusade?

Jelly's on a roll!

Yesterday I spent my day in Jelly. No, not that kind of jelly, although since I was wondering I did some research to find out exactly what distinguishes jelly from jam from marmalade and what have you.

Okay, so if it isn't something that goes well on a sandwich with peanut butter, what is it? Jelly is casual coworking -- a group of people who normally work from home who get together twice a month to do work in a group setting -- someone's house, a coffeshop or another suitable location. It was started in 2006 in New York by two roommates who worked from home but "missed the creative brainstorming, sharing, and camaraderie of a traditional office." So they got the idea to invite some other people they knew who also worked from home to come to their place occasionally to do their work in a group atmosphere. They found that working around other people every so often resulted in an exchange of new ideas and opinions.

Somehow, the idea spread, and Jellies started popping up in other cities -- Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and even Sydney, Australia. Austin's Jelly had its first meeting in November 2007. Organized by Dusty Reagan, Jelly Austin is now meeting on the 1st Friday and 3rd Thursday of every month at different coffeeshops around town, like Cafe Caffeine and Genuine Joe.

Yesterday's Jelly was the fifth meeting, and the turnout was great. I got to the cafe at about 10:00, scoped out the room and found a few people at a table setting up laptops. "Are you guys here with Jelly?" I asked, wondering how that would sound to someone who wasn't familiar with the concept ("No, I'm not here with jelly, nor marshmallow fluff for that matter.") Lucky for me, they were, so I joined the table. Within an hour, our group had grown to six or seven, and by noon we were up over a dozen.

So, what did we do? Well, since I'm still hunting for a "real job," I spent my time working on a website I've been fooling around with and a screenplay I started a few months ago, although to be honest I spent most of the day socializing. Everyone I met was smart, interesting, friendly, and full of good ideas. While most of the other folks got considerably more work done than I did, we did manage to have a few good group conversations, my favorite being about what distinguishes a "nerd" from a "geek" from a "dork" and which one each of us would qualify as (for the record, I'm probably straddling the line between geekdom and nerdhood). I did manage to find out about what some of the other Jelly people were working on:

• Dusty is the founder of Floating Head Studios, where he designs and builds websites and software. He also wins the Coolest Looking Business Card award.


• David Walker, a self-described "idealistic entrepreneur and optimistic dreamer," has his own business, 302 Designs, "a clothing label whose poetic, artistic & unique t-shirts inspire, define, and push the limits of the t-shirt fashion status quo."


• John Metcalf works at radar, software that allows people to instantly share and comment on each other's cellphone photographs. John's a good person to get to know, because apparently he knows everone (or at least all the right people).


• Sumina Bhatti is a residential real estate agent. Her company is Ms. Organization.


• Karen Kreps is the author of the recently published Intimacies: Secrets of Love, Sex and Romance -- the mission is "to share stories about love, sex and romance that inspire adults to think in new ways and communicate openly so as to enjoy more fulfilling personal relationships."

That's just a sample. It was fun and refreshing to finally get out of the house and meet some people. I plan on making it to the next Jelly gathering, although I promised Dusty that next time I'd actually do some work!

Want to start a Jelly group in your town? Click here. Oh, and why is it called "Jelly?" Apparently the creators chose the name Jelly because they conceived the idea while eating jellybeans. Works for me!

The early Jelly crowd (from L to R; hope I got all the names right): Jane Anne, David, Dusty, John and Mike

Sumina and Saurabh (unidentified Jellyists also in rear)

Vintage Austin

We may have downsized, but we still managed to end up without enough furniture to put stuff on. So on Saturday, Jon and I started to make the rounds of local furniture stores. Interest piqued by advertisements (and with a list of 7 establishments on Burnet Road alone), we began our search for all things groovy at the vintage and consignment shops nearby.

Groovy, indeed. We began at Room Service Vintage and Hog Wild Texas. Room Service had an impressive collection of glassware sets and a really great long macrame lamp - wired with a single lightbulb, this was probably the day's most notable fire hazard. There were also a lot of 8 track tapes and Atari cartridges, including a copy of Pac-Man sealed in plastic with the instruction booklet. Too bad all we have is our old Sega Genesis console.

Just next door to these establishments is the radical bookstore Monkeywrench Books. Monkeywrench has a thought-provoking and varied stock, and best yet, it's staffed by unintentionally hilarious earnest young men (sample discussion topic - the "Oprah Effect" on presidential candidates).

Hog Wild Texas reputedly has one of the largest vintage toy selections in the United States. We spent some time trying to figure out which version of the Han Solo figurine is hanging from the light fixture in our closet. Could it really be worth $50? Equally impressive at Hog Wild was the lunchbox display. Hardy Boys, Happy Days and the Hair Bear Bunch - it was all there. (Not to mention Space 1999 and Adam 12).

After visits to a few more places, including the Austin Antique Mall and the furniture consignment stores Austin Home Collection and It's New to Me, we ended our day successfully at Urban Living. We brought home a brand-new console table on major sale that definitely qualified as groovy - metal legs, veneered wood top.

Sunday was spent on far less acquisitive pursuits, with a walk along the shores of Lady Bird Lake and a run in Zilker Park for Lester.

Wrap: First week (and a few days)

So we've made it here for over a week without bolting back to New England in horror. Much of our time has been spent opening, unpacking and breaking down carboard boxes. That phase, thankfully, is beginning to wind down, although our daybed is still under a massive pile of used packing paper.



Consumed daybed

We did have a few chances to get out and do some other things. We had some nice weather this weekend, so Rachel, Lester and I went to the Bull Creek Greenbelt -- one of many greenbelt trails throughout the city. Lester even enjoyed a swim in the polar bear waters.


Creek crossing -- don't try to cross when the water hits 5!


Climber, Bull Creek Park


Lester swimming in Bull Creek


View along the greenbelt

We haven't made it out too much for food yet, but we did go out for tasty authentic Mexican-style tacos around the corner at Taqueria Arandas. We tried a variety of simple, soft corn tortilla tacos: chicken, beef, pork and guacamole. We stayed away from the more exotic fillings -- which include brains and tongue for the more daring. Ewww!

Other than a quick trip downtown, the rest of our time outside of the house and the office has been spent exploring our area in the north of Austin. Found a few nice places to walk. Lester has taken to the off-leash dog walk in our neighborhood like a second home. There's also lots of great shopping around here. Burnet Road (pronounced "burn it", durn it!) is a great commercial strip with lots of independently owned businesses. There are tons of furniture and crafts stores, and even a store dedicated exclusively to light bulbs featuring a sign that is, shall we say, eye-catching? Actually, many of the businesses along Burnet Road have great, throwback signs high above the street. There are some serious throw-back eateries on Burnet, too, plus some great ethnic markets and restaurants. In addition to the aforementioned Arandas, we've checked out Phoenicia Bakery & Deli (middle eastern food counter and market) and Billy's on Burnet (very casual bar and grill with a nice outdoor deck). If you like food and you come to visit, we can spend a week eating our way up and down Burnet Road.

Vaguely menacing sign for the Light Bulb Shop, Burnet Road

Sign on Burnet Road

Lester and Jon at the leash-free dog walk

More House Pictures

A few additional shots of the house as unpacking progresses.


Back patio (full of pecan leaves)


The backyard, looking toward rear of house from one far corner


The kitchen and dining room, starting to take shape
(Sheila et al., note the table)


First home-cooked meal


Some local food items we picked up at the local H.E.B. to stock the new fridge.
Clockwise from top:

• Blue Bell Ice Cream -- apparently once called "the best ice cream in the world" by Time Magazine.
• Sweat Leaf Tea -- much better than Snapple, and available at most Whole Foods stores (also an Austin institution).
• Smoked sausage courtesy of Opa's Smoked Meats in nearby Fredericksburg.
• Shiner Dunkelweizen, one of the many Shiner beers brewed by Spoetzl Brewery.