Friday, September 23, 2005
Rita and Lyle
Rita:
is headed straight towards my mom, who has decided to duck. She's in Lake Charles, and they haven't evacuated. The official word is that people south of I-10 should have evacuated, and she's a little bit north of it. She's of the opinion that the house will be fine, but there are many things in the yard that might fly about, so they're staying and securing the premises as best they're able. I think they'll be fine, but of course we won't really know until Sunday-ish.
Austin probably won't get much, although there is a high-wind advisory for Saturday.
As a result of Rita, I downloaded Google Earth. It's WAY cool - it's an application that shows you the earth, and you can zoom in on specific places, down to street level, anywhere on earth. It's done with satellite photos (and other technical stuff). It's not real time, but it's still awesome. I saw my dad's old house, my mom's house, my current street, the dojo...very cool, and very nice for my deficient geography skills. A co-worker asked me today if Lake Charles was south of Port Arthur - I fired up Google Earth and checked it out (turns out it isn't - lake Charles is almost due east of Austin, actually). Lots of places don't have great resolution when you zoom in real close, but you can easily see block level for all the places in the US that I've looked at. Here's the url to download Google Earth for yourself: http://earth.google.com/
Lyle:
is playing in Austin tonight, at the ACL (Austin City Limits) music festival, along with about 120 other acts. I have a three day pass, after much consternation. See, I bought my ticket ages ago (back in June or July). It arrived in due time, late August. And then I promptly lost it. I remember getting it, and I have no recollection of what happened after that. I know I decided at some point that I'd leave it on my fridge. Well, it's not there. Nor is it in my office, living room, bedroom, or any other room. I looked in my car, too - no joy. So today I emailed the festival peeps and asked if there was anything that could be done. They put it nicely, but the answer, ultimately, was "No." So off to ebay I went, and I found quite a few up for grabs. I bid on one whose auction was ending within the hour. It looked good, but I got outbid. I was sad. Then I got an email from a nice person who offered to sell me an extra ticket at face value. Hooray! So I paypal'd her the money, and rendevoused with her on the south side of the capitol building, and I now have in my possession a 3-day pass.
Yesterday, I had resigned myself to missing it - I've been overtired and overcommitted lately, and I didn't really know if I had the energy. Plus, I didn't have a ticket (that I could find). But then they were talking about it on KUT, and I remembered how much fun I had last year, and I decided that I really wanted to go. Besides, I got 13 hours of sleep Saturday night, and at least 8 every night since, and am actually feeling pretty good in the energy department, so that's less of an obstacle than it could have been. I'm still hoping the extra ticket will show up, in which case I'll invite a friend along, and there will be much rejoicing.
My friend the Riveter also graciously offered to pay for 1/4 of the new ticket price because she wanted an ACL buddy. Thanks, Riveter! You're the best. I have great friends.
So, my schedule tonight is tai chi at 6:30, Lyle at 8:15, and dancing at 10. Depending on the weather tomorrow, I have karate at 10, self defense at 11, and ACL fest afterwards. And on Sunday it's all acl all the time. I have a few people I'm looking forward to seeing, but if this year is anything like last year, the best acts will be those I just wander into. Here's the schedule:
http://www.aclfestival.com/festival/default.asp
In other news, I'm planning on starting a pilates class next week. My extra-karate schedule will hopefully be lifting weights twice a week (went back to that this week after 3 months of absence - weights are heavy!), pilates once a week, and cardio (running or swimming) once a week. I'll probably do the cardio on Thursdays, since I don't have karate on Thursday.
I also hope to start eating better - always a challenge for me.
And that's all the news that fits.
is headed straight towards my mom, who has decided to duck. She's in Lake Charles, and they haven't evacuated. The official word is that people south of I-10 should have evacuated, and she's a little bit north of it. She's of the opinion that the house will be fine, but there are many things in the yard that might fly about, so they're staying and securing the premises as best they're able. I think they'll be fine, but of course we won't really know until Sunday-ish.
Austin probably won't get much, although there is a high-wind advisory for Saturday.
As a result of Rita, I downloaded Google Earth. It's WAY cool - it's an application that shows you the earth, and you can zoom in on specific places, down to street level, anywhere on earth. It's done with satellite photos (and other technical stuff). It's not real time, but it's still awesome. I saw my dad's old house, my mom's house, my current street, the dojo...very cool, and very nice for my deficient geography skills. A co-worker asked me today if Lake Charles was south of Port Arthur - I fired up Google Earth and checked it out (turns out it isn't - lake Charles is almost due east of Austin, actually). Lots of places don't have great resolution when you zoom in real close, but you can easily see block level for all the places in the US that I've looked at. Here's the url to download Google Earth for yourself: http://earth.google.com/
Lyle:
is playing in Austin tonight, at the ACL (Austin City Limits) music festival, along with about 120 other acts. I have a three day pass, after much consternation. See, I bought my ticket ages ago (back in June or July). It arrived in due time, late August. And then I promptly lost it. I remember getting it, and I have no recollection of what happened after that. I know I decided at some point that I'd leave it on my fridge. Well, it's not there. Nor is it in my office, living room, bedroom, or any other room. I looked in my car, too - no joy. So today I emailed the festival peeps and asked if there was anything that could be done. They put it nicely, but the answer, ultimately, was "No." So off to ebay I went, and I found quite a few up for grabs. I bid on one whose auction was ending within the hour. It looked good, but I got outbid. I was sad. Then I got an email from a nice person who offered to sell me an extra ticket at face value. Hooray! So I paypal'd her the money, and rendevoused with her on the south side of the capitol building, and I now have in my possession a 3-day pass.
Yesterday, I had resigned myself to missing it - I've been overtired and overcommitted lately, and I didn't really know if I had the energy. Plus, I didn't have a ticket (that I could find). But then they were talking about it on KUT, and I remembered how much fun I had last year, and I decided that I really wanted to go. Besides, I got 13 hours of sleep Saturday night, and at least 8 every night since, and am actually feeling pretty good in the energy department, so that's less of an obstacle than it could have been. I'm still hoping the extra ticket will show up, in which case I'll invite a friend along, and there will be much rejoicing.
My friend the Riveter also graciously offered to pay for 1/4 of the new ticket price because she wanted an ACL buddy. Thanks, Riveter! You're the best. I have great friends.
So, my schedule tonight is tai chi at 6:30, Lyle at 8:15, and dancing at 10. Depending on the weather tomorrow, I have karate at 10, self defense at 11, and ACL fest afterwards. And on Sunday it's all acl all the time. I have a few people I'm looking forward to seeing, but if this year is anything like last year, the best acts will be those I just wander into. Here's the schedule:
http://www.aclfestival.com/festival/default.asp
In other news, I'm planning on starting a pilates class next week. My extra-karate schedule will hopefully be lifting weights twice a week (went back to that this week after 3 months of absence - weights are heavy!), pilates once a week, and cardio (running or swimming) once a week. I'll probably do the cardio on Thursdays, since I don't have karate on Thursday.
I also hope to start eating better - always a challenge for me.
And that's all the news that fits.
# posted by Amy @ 3:16 PM 
