Weekend Activities in Austin

So, every Friday I send out "Friday Thoughts from Julie", which are a compilation of activities going on around Austin and the surrounding areas to everyone at work. They seem to be pretty popular so I thought I'd post them up here as well.

• Do Friday afternoons bring the realization that you need activities to keep your child/children occupied for the weekend? If so, check out the Fall Nature Nights at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Once a month, for only $1, your kids can be occupied for 3 whole hours and learn cool stuff. Tonight’s session is on Plants & People and will give you a chance to make your own recycled paper.

• That magical time of year is upon us. The time of year when you can do more damage to your heart, arteries and any diet plan than all the winter holidays combined. That’s right, the State Fair of Texas starts today. In addition to enjoying anything fried you could think of, I’ve heard there are also lifestock shows, midway rides and music. Whatever. All I know is this year’s Most Creative food (?) prize went to fried beer.

• It’s also time for the fall edition of The Pecan Street Festival. Saturday and Sunday head down to 6^th Street for the largest art festival in Central Texas. Tons of artisans from all over the U.S. will be on hand as well as five stages of music and plenty of food. But, Julie, you’re not addressing my most important question: will there be fried beer? Sadly, I don’t think so. You should still go, though.

• Once you’ve eaten all that yummy fried food, you really should do something active. Or, better yet, go watch someone else be active. Ballet Austin’s season starts this weekend at the Long Center. That sounds like a good place to go watch other people burn calories. If these current pieces, Carmina Burana & Kai aren’t quite your cup of ballet tea, note that they also already have tickets on sale for The Nutcracker.

• The new Visual Arts Center at U.T. is having its grand opening celebration this weekend. From noon to 9:00pm on Sunday there will be plenty of tours, conversations and performances to introduce everyone to this new space. The Center is free and open to the public except Saturdays when U.T. is playing at home. Yes, that’s right, football trumps the arts once again.

• If you or someone you know loves horror, fantasy, sci-fi, or action movies, then you have to check out “the geek Telluride” (Variety’s words, not mine) AKA Fantastic Fest, which started yesterday and runs through the 30^th. In addition to classics like Spaceballs (which includes a quote-a-long), there will be exciting premieres like Sharktopus. Don’t even try and tell me you haven’t been waiting to see Sharktopus for months now. I know you all better than that.

• If your movie tastes are more traditional, you could always go see The Town (unless you don’t like Boston accents). That’s what I did last night and it’s a darn good movie with a really impressive cast.

• Some former lawyers get jobs at cool foundations (that’d be me) while others start their own delicious sounding food trucks featuring a fusion of Tex-Mex and Vietnamese (that’d be Eric Silverstein). His truck, The Peached Tortilla, rolls into Austin this weekend. Saturday, the first night of business, Eric will be in front of Star Bar starting at 9:00pm and he’ll have complimentary tastings. After that, he’ll be roving the city so check out the website for location updates.
  

Honey?

Yes, dear?

This is actually a post about using honey to combat my acne. But, when I did a Google image search for "honey" I came up with the movie poster from that awesome (oops, I mean) terrible Jessica Alba movie and I had to use it. I'll admit, I never saw the movie but I feel comfortable standing by my assessment.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I read online about six weeks ago about using honey to combat acne. This is one of the sites I read. Well, I've tried just about everything under the sun to get rid of my acne with not a lot of luck so I figured slathering honey on my face is cheap and easy enough to try.

Surprisingly (at least to me), I've had good results. For about the first two weeks, I washed my face every night, spread honey all over it (you're supposed to go for the unprocessed honey), let it sit for 20-30 minutes and then washed it off. Since those first two weeks, I've continued doing the routine as many nights a week as I can (and remember!).

Before I started the honey, I was breaking out constantly. Not just little breakouts either, huge breakouts all over my face, especially on my cheek.

Now, I'm breaking out almost not at all. I have a small pimple today but that's the first one I've had in a while.

So, honey = good.

Unless it involves Jessica Alba.

I've Got Bad Taste in Music

I fully admit that I have bad taste in music. I crank Britney Spears with abandon. I think I actually have more Britney albums on my iPhone than any other artist. Occasionally I listen to some worthwhile music that doesn't provoke scorn in those around me (see, for example, my obsession with A Fine Frenzy's Bomb in a Birdcage album) but, for the most part, I have the same musical interests I did as a 15 year old girl.

Currently, I'm beyond happy when this song comes on the radio. I'm also a fan of the version with Eminem (who, as it happens, I used to have a HUGE crush on when I was younger). Oh, and to be clear, I really like the melody, not so much the rapping by B.o.B.

I have resisted the urge to buy it on iTunes so at least that's something. Right?

Things I'm Currently Coveting

It's been a few months since I did one of these and I certainly haven't stopped coveting things so let's go.

First up, how cute would this dress be for work? Especially with my pixie cut (which currently is in major, major need of a trim). Vestiges from Anthropologie - I covet you. Hard.


I have no idea where I'd wear this next dress but I just love it so so so much. So much. I used to have a couple great black/white polka dot articles of clothing (a great dress, skirt, etc.) and now my wardrobe is totally lacking in that department. This Pebble Seraphina from J Crew would totally remedy that hole in my closet.

Costco: A Love Story

I'm not really sure how I got through the first 27+ years of my life without Costco but I hope I have one near me for the next 70 because it's the awesome.

There's so much good stuff. And in such massive quantities. Like huge bags of delicious Babybel cheese, a lifetime supply of microwave popcorn and the biggest bottles of olive oil I've ever seen.

Thank God our Austin apartment is two-three times the size of our Manhattan apartment because there's no way we could fit all these wonderful goods inside our place otherwise.

As an added bonus, we get boxes to add to The Paws ever growing collection of boxes in our still defunct dining room. I swear one day we'll have a table and chairs in there.

What about you? Do you find joy in buying six tubes of toothpaste at a time?

Further Proof...

That Real Simple is my magazine soul mate. Article in the most recent issue: Napping, A Love Story.

I'm a big napper (just wanted to iterate that in case it wasn't clear from the title of my blog). I generally can't get through the weekend without at least one nap. My love of sleeping, in general, and napping, in particular, is totally at odds with my personality. I tend towards the over-achiever end of the spectrum. So, my favorite line in this essay is a good reminder that naps are a wonderful thing, even if you're not getting anything accomplished by sleeping during the day.

"...not everything has to be useful, not everything has to lead to something more—that sometimes, for no reason and with no purpose, you can just curl up on the couch, feel the soft breeze, and drift into a soft, delicious sleep that leads to nowhere in particular, and back again."

And, since we're talking about sleeping, above we have a gorgeous bedding set from Anthropologie that A) I don't need, B) I can't afford and C) Christian probably wouldn't go for even if A and B weren't true. Why do I continue to torture myself with their bedding section?

Devil Spawn

Ok, so you know that adorable kitten we adopted? If you need a refresher, she's just a little further down the page in all her furry glory.

Well, she's about 5 months old now, the super cute fuzziness has faded and it turns out we may have adopted the Spawn of Satan.

I know, I know, you're looking at her photo and she still looks totally adorable and sweet. Looks can be deceiving. I'll admit that she is a really cute cat. But she's a really cute cat that bites. And scratches. And has left me scarred. I'm thinking of trying out for the next Mederma commercial spot to bring in some extra money. Last night, we got into a bit of a skirmish and I now have deep scratch marks on the side of 4 of my toes. (Thankfully, the pinky was spared).

It's not like she's lashing out because she's neglected or anything. Our entire dining room is basically dedicated to toys and activities for this cat. Seriously. There's a tunnel, one of those nice scratching posts with a perch on top, the blinds are open, she has 2 boxes to play with, and another half dozen other toys and things to keep her occupied. Plus, she has a totally fashionable collar.

Unfortunately, even all that doesn't seem to calm the devil inside her.

Everyone keeps telling us that she'll calm down as she gets older. Boy, oh boy, do I hope that's true. Otherwise, has anyone heard of a Cat Whisperer? Or, would Cesar Millan take on this special case?