My cousin Anthony is getting married on the 12th, and my father and I, as well as my aunt and uncle (my cousin's parents) are traveling down to the Lone Star State Monday, for a week of. . .well, I'm not sure, really.
I don't think we have any Flare D/FW Metroplexians, but I know we have at least one Texan. So, like, what's the deal? I think we're taking the (long) drive to Austin for a day or two as well. One week before South by Southwest, I tragically note.
Keep in mind that all my travels will be with a family that I am not, shall we say, a representative sample of.
There may be pictures afterwards, and there will probably be some sort of sarcastic and poorly formatted travel diary.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Hmmm..you're not exactly ariving at a nice time of year in dallas- you'll find a severe lack of color if the weather's bad (or if it's still really cold there) the sky and land will be a uiform gray and the buildings mostly brick or (downtown) unpainted concrete and steel.
I'm not a big fan of Dallas in winter.
I've heard there's some nightlife to be had, but like you, my visits there were always of a family-oriented (read: inescapable) nature.
This might help, though.... this looks infinately more promising. Posted by Nim' (Member # 205) on :
Yep, Dallas winters run slowly, like molasses in February. *spit* *ploink*
Jason:
quote:- you'll find a severe lack of color if the weather's bad (or if it's still really cold there) the sky and land will be a uiform gray and the buildings mostly brick or (downtown) unpainted concrete and steel.
As opposed to spring Dallas, when the grazing buildings shed their brick wintercoat and grow a nice birch and alabaster thatchwork, with spots of redwood and bakelite fittings. Shindigs and cheerleaders for everyone.
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
Visit id.
"...a family that I am not, shall we say, a representative sample of."
I will probably regret this, but: are there any families out there that you are a representative sample of?
Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :
Ryan McReynolds was our Metroplex poster. I've never spent any appreciable time in Dallas or Austin, but I do have friends that have travelled there on occassion. I'll ask them and get back to you.
Off the top of my head, I know that Dallas has a museum of arts and a museum or natural history. I've heard both of them are pretty good. There's the Dallas Symphony, but I don't know if their season has started, what they're performing, or how ridiculously expensive it is. Downtown Dallas has undergone a revitalization, so it may be worth it to wonder around there for a couple hours popping into shops and restaurants. Also, maybe you can catch a tour of all the spots in Dallas they filmed Walker, Texas Ranger. The Mavericks are playing, but, again, I don't know their schedule or how ridiculously expensive a game would be. The area where JFK was assassinated is still there and undergoing a project to restore it to it's 1963 appearance.
Austin is a college town, so there's a lot of stuff geared towards students. In particular, Sixth Street and Guadalupe Street near UT are hotspots for bars, restaurants, and live music. Austin is supposedly famous for its music, but I don't know of any venues off-hand. The Texas Legislature is in session, so it might be interesting (and humorous, according to Molly Ivins) to take a tour of the capitol building and see part of a session. If you pop over to UT, the tower has tours, so you can go up to the observation deck and see where Charles Whitman went crazy with deer rifles thirty years ago. Somewhere around there is a bridge that's a popular spot for watching bats. Also, on the north side is the Chuy's Tex-Mex restaurant that is famous for being the scene where the Bush daughters were busted for underage drinking and using fake IDs.
Posted by Nim' (Member # 205) on :
To boat drinks!
Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :
Boat drinks? You'll have to visit the Riverwalk in San Antonio for those.
Posted by Nim' (Member # 205) on :
N-no!
Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :
Yeah, you're right. Austin to San Antonio is as butt-numbing a drive as Dallas to Austin.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Originally posted by Cartman: Visit id.
"...a family that I am not, shall we say, a representative sample of."
I will probably regret this, but: are there any families out there that you are a representative sample of?
(snaps fingers) The Adams Fam-i-ly (snaps fingers)
quote:Originally posted by Nim': As opposed to spring Dallas, when the grazing buildings shed their brick wintercoat and grow a nice birch and alabaster thatchwork, with spots of redwood and bakelite fittings. Shindigs and cheerleaders for everyone.
Well, I got dragged to some sprawling gardens last time I was there (six years ago?) and they were bueatiful. You'll notice that every woman over 22 in the dallas/Ft. Worth metropolitan area drives an SUV and has a baby.
That's not an exageration either: there may be some local statuate I'm unaware of in play...
Posted by FuturamaGuy (Member # 968) on :
My sister lives in Austin (no shit). Works at a Best Buy there, she'll hook you up.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"(snaps fingers) The Adams Fam-i-ly (snaps fingers)"
Oh, I don't know. John may have been a little weird, but Abigail was pretty normal.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
I was thinking more like Pugsley (If Mike was the poser, I'd have said Wednsday, but that would be mean, and I'm a nice person ...in some alternate dimension).
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Interesting, though I'm hoping to hit stores a bit more. . . off the beaten path. I mean, I can (and often do) hit Best Buy on my way home from work. Though I may have to stop by, just for the eerie frisson of "Hey, are you related to this guy I know by an alias at a Star Trek message board?"
I would sure like to load up on the sorts of CDs and books one imagines would be available in a hip college town. (All my experience is with unhip college towns.)
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Mabye FG wants you in the family and is playing matchmaker.
Posted by FuturamaGuy (Member # 968) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: Mabye FG wants you in the family and is playing matchmaker.
Pa always said the family sure could use the smarts.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
And to address the subject of these two intervening posts: I can't come up with anything appropriate/amusing. Uh, the family Hominidae? (HEARTY CHUCKLES)
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
He's gotta diversify Homo Ergaster as much as possible: brave new century and all that.
Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :
Of course Futurama Guy wants Sol System in his family. What family wouldn't love to have the genes of a guy with a Massive Wang in the family?
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
We're Norwegian/Germanic, actually.
Bam!
Posted by Nim' (Member # 205) on :
Ok let's kick this thread up a notch.
Jason:
quote:and I'm a nice person ...in some alternate dimension).
A version of you without the evil beard? I can't wrap my brain (or ass) around it.
Sol Norsekraut: How many generations back? I've never heard of any norwegian or german called Sizer. Is it a semitic name, like Pfizer? I stink at recognizing those. Does your family have a lot of pharmaceutical clout?
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
I actually have an evil beard at the moment.
..and for your sake, I hope your ass is no where large enough to wrap around anything.
Posted by FuturamaGuy (Member # 968) on :
quote:Originally posted by Siegfried: Of course Futurama Guy wants Sol System in his family. What family wouldn't love to have the genes of a guy with a Massive Wang in the family?
Actually, the family plan is to size what we have down a little...
Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :
So far, I've only gotten one response from a friend, Sol. Here's what he says:
quote:Austin -- everything is on 6th Street, and of course, a visit must be made to Hut's Hamburgers.
Dallas -- check out The Mustangs of Las Colinas plaza. Also, there's a great Fox and Hound Grille and Bar somewhere around I-45 and UT-Dallas.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
My family is Norwegian on my mother's side. (Stromme.) I believe one set of immigrants in that case were my great grandparents, but it might be a generation further back. (My maternal grandmother's maiden name was Stubjoen.) Anyway, I believe it was sometime early in the 20th century, but I could very easily be wrong. I like krumkake, is all I know. (But I am ambivalent about lefse, and what is with all the fruit soups?) Anyway, my grandfather on this side died before I was born, and my grandmother died in 1985, so I don't have much of a cultural connection, beyond some of the food. I am told I have relatives in Norway who might possibly know who I am, in the "grandson of the daughter of Old Halvor" sense. I'd really like to go there someday.
I am not really up on my geneology. As for Sizers, the earliest related Sizer that I know of was actually a French Huguenot living in, I think, Portugal, who traveled to America in the mid 18th century by way of the Azores. Sizer is the Englishization of his family name, which I can't really spell for you, but which sounds sort of like "de Zoshur." I believe Sizer itself is a British name, as there are plenty of Sizers there, none of whom I am related to. The Germanic stuff is mostly from my paternal grandmother's family. (I believe they were from Austria, to be specific.)
No one related to me has ever had much clout.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
So...you're an alien?
Posted by Nim' (Member # 205) on :
Funny, krumkake is what we swedes call "waffles", and we serve them with strawberry (or cloudberry!) jam and whipped cream. http://www.fiskecamp.nu/images/waffla.jpg
About fruit soups, I think what you've encountered is some of scandinavia's many fools. Strawberry, rhubarb and apple fool is the most common, served in a mirror of milk. Why, I've got some apple fool in the fridge as we speak, I had some yesternight while watching Jet Li beat people up with a firehose, I don't know what the hell was going on but the fool was of good.
I think you'd have fun going to Scandinavia, but go either in the winter or summer, that's when it shines (0˚F/90˚F).
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
I pity the fool that listens to Nim.
Posted by FuturamaGuy (Member # 968) on :
quote:Originally posted by Sol System: My family is Norwegian on my mother's side. (Stromme.)
...
I like krumkake, is all I know. (But I am ambivalent about lefse, and what is with all the fruit soups?)
Yay for lefse! I actually like the stuff - with butter and sugar - had some last weekend as a matter of fact. My paternal grandmother (Overby) is also Norwegian and that my cultural connection to the (1/4) motherland. That an rhubarb pie...not sure if that is a Norway thing or a Montana thing...anyway...
I have no connections to my German/Dutch, English or Lithuanian roots...so fuck 'em.
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
I am allegedly an unknown-but-greater-than-50-percentage Italian, through my maternal great-grandparents and, erh, my father, whom I have not seen since Reagan thought Star Wars was a cool movie, but can I name even one pasta dish or other staple of the Italian cuisine besides pizza? No. That's what living in a cold, dark, northern European wasteland for a quarter of a century does to your heritage.
(Google's krumkake looks mightily appetizing. (The krumkake that isn't a toaster.))
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: I pity the fool that listens to Nim.
You so win.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Well, I'm off.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
Someone pop down to the shop and get a new Simon, will you?
Posted by Nim' (Member # 205) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: I pity the fool that listens to Nim.
Psyliam: You so win.
I don't converse with fools, I eat them, sillycock.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
No outpourings of grief at my absence, I see.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
We cry on the inside.
Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :
I prayed for your soul while you were in Texas, Sol System.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
But all he got was a pair of socks.
Posted by Nim' (Member # 205) on :
I'll send him one of my prized krumkakke pastries, as a little morale booster.
![[Wink]](wink.gif)