An ebullient evening

The happy couple

Cynthia and I celebrated our anniversary over dinner and drinks at Sambuca Jazz Cafe in the heart of downtown.

I have had a few opportunities to visit Sambuca and have always been very pleased.

On this night we enjoyed our respective adult beverages of choice, gin and tonics for her and vodka martinis for me. They were mmmmmmmm tasty!

Our meals were indulgent and decadent. I enjoyed a lovely dinner of rare lamb chops with garlic mashed potatos and asparagus while Cynthia savored some lovely veal served with mixed vegetables.

We had mentioned to our abundantly attentive and wonderful waiter that we were celebrating our 13th anniversary and when desert arrived it had a personalized message written in chocolate…

Lucky 13

It was a lovely evening of delicious food combined with delightfully intoxicated reminiscences punctuated with laughter and a real sense of joy that is the result of spending so much of ones life with such a suitable and compatible partner.

2006 Houston Press Music Awards Showcase

Our showcase performance for the 2006 Houston Press Music Awards will be at Pete’s Dancing Marlin at 5:00 PM on Sunday, July 30th.

We hope you can join us for this event.
If you have not yet voted, there’s still time!
You can also cast your vote at the event.

We play for about an hour and there are many other great bands to see that day.

You gotta love the write up in the Houston Press:

“Traditional folk music for the 21st century” is the stock-in-trade of these sea salts and Zappa- and Devo-loving buccaneers. Regular denizens of the Continental Club complex, these fish can also be found flying in allied bands such as Beetle and Light Rock Express. Their stated goal: “To find a way to keep enjoying the music business”; their dream is an “animated appearance on The Simpsons.” (We can see it now: They’re playing on the docks, and the Sea Captain introduces them thusly: “Arrr, this be the yarrest band thar be#201”) Feel free to request “pop songs from the ’60s and ’70s” at their shows, but don’t holler for “Danny Boy” — you might get a harpoon through your midships.

Year 14 of a life sentence

Cynthia

Today Cynthia and I celebrate our 14th anniversary.

She is the best thing that has ever happened to me.
And I am not just saying that because she reads this blog on her lunch break.

There are literally no words adequate enough to describe how happy and how lucky I feel for getting to share my life with such a glorious woman.

Thanks to the all night flower stands over on flower row near downtown I was able to have this waiting for Cynthia when she woke up this morning:

Roses

One dozen red roses with one yellow rose to accentuate the 14th year of this relationship.

I love you Cynthia! Happy anniversary!

The times they are a changin’

I really don’t want to be one of those old guys who goes on and on about how things were done when I was young. Yea, I wax nostalgic about things like the first digital watches or my old Tandy TRS-80 I had back in 1978. But that doesn’t prevent me from revelling in a dual core Apple laptop and buying a new cell phone every few years.

Heck, I have even rid myself of all but my most collectible vinyl and happily load my iPod with music way younger than I am.

But there are some things that you just shouldn’t mess with (besides Texas). Especially in the name of product marketing.

It appears that Parker Brothers has decided to “update” the game of Monopoly. Not only that, but they are teaming up with Visa to do it.

No more paper money! Oh no, now you get a mock Visa card and a little machine that allows you to transfer money to and from the bank.

Chris Weatherhead, brand manager at Parker games, which makes Monopoly, said: “We wanted to design a more relevant version of Monopoly to reflect modern society.”

That sounds like a load of hooey if you ask me (pardon the old man-speak). If anything, it’s just one more way to put advertising in front of consumers.

According to the news article you will still be able to buy the “antiquated” cash version.

I haven’t been this bothered about a board game since Electronic Battleship.

You should not need batteries to play the classic board games. It just ain’t right!

Via Engadget: Monoploly ditches cash, goes plastic

A nerd’s life

This weekend while hanging out downtown at the 3700 Main St. Entertainment Megaplex (aka The Continental Club, Sig’s Lagoon, Taco A-Go-Go and The Big Top) I found myself sitting behind the counter at Sig’s Lagoon working on Tomas Escalante’s laptop.

Tomas Escalante is a stand up guy. Not only does he run Sig’s Lagoon, he is also the front man for Clouseaux who, as it just so happens, have a very nice new CD that just came out.

Poor Tomas, his laptop was crawling with some nasty trojan horses and other malware that was quite tenacious.

Friday night, out on the town and getting my geek on. This is the life.

There was a blues show next door at the Continental Club that did not interest me all that much so I was content to work on the PC and chat with the steady stream of customers coming into the shop.

On this Friday night none other than Allen Hill of the Allen Oldies Band was on site stumping for votes in the upcoming 2006 Houston Press Music Awards.

Dressed to kill in his trademark tux and tennies he was spinning oldies on vinyl and encouraging patrons to fill out a ballot and cast their vote. The Allen Oldies are nominated in the Best Cover Band category this year. It was hoot to watch.

I spent most of that evening just enjoying the groove at Sig’s and watching Allen’s antics as I repaired the laptop and got it back up and running.

If you are in the Houston area and have not checked out Sig’s Lagoon I strongly suggest you find the time and go have a look. It’s a record store/gift shop that is quite unique.

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