Just because

I've been so obsessed with Jane Austen lately (I blame the PBS Complete Jane Austen series). I bought this huge book that contains all her novels back in February. So far I've only read Persuasion. Perhaps next I should read Sense and Sensibility?

Take the Quiz here!

PS - I am either finally being affected by the notorious Austin pollen or I have some sort of cold. My throat hurts and I'm feeling a bit cranky.

Ordering a sandwich - ur doin it wrong.

I went to ThunderCloud Subs for lunch today - the first time in five years or so. I'm not sure that they're the world's greatest sandwich or anything, but they're an Austin institution, and I'd missed 'em.

So I left the office at lunch to go rent a couple of DVDs I needed to watch for a story I'm checking, and I spot a ThunderCloud not far from where I work. I'd never been to this particular location but no worries, right? What could be different? Well the whole ordering process. Apparently, you order and pay, and then there are like four sandwich-making stations that you then walk up to and tell the sandwich-maker what you'd ordered (and then you can get it all customized).

But of course I didn't know that and I floundered for a bit until someone had to tell me how to get my sandwich. Times like that I'm so glad I'm a girl, because then I can giggle and get this big smile on my face and be flirty and no one has the heart to laugh at you. Hooray for feminine wiles.

The Verrazano

It was one of those words that was terribly fun to say, once you learned how to say it. "The Verrrrr-az-AN-o". We drove over it on February 29 - that kicked off the long drive from New York to Texas that I made when I moved back to Austin.

In that car, there was:
-my mom, who had come to help me pack
-my brother, who had come to pick us up and take me as far as his house in Virginia
-my cat, who was howling in the backseat
-a box of pastries from the San Antonio Bakery on Astoria Boulevard, which we stopped at for some lunch
-some clothes and such to get me through the next couple of weeks
-my Tord Boontje light.

The rest of my belongings were on a moving van that would sit in Brooklyn for another week before leaving for Texas. (But I digress.)