Putting on some miles

Pulled into a parking space and just happened to notice that my car was RIGHT THEN rolling past 140,000 miles! Mr B has the same year and model (2000) and his has about 155,000 on it. I've never had a car that went this far!

And speaking of going a long ways, check out this hitchhiker I picked up on Friday. I was driving home in rush hour (and it IS an hour long commute but there's not much RUSH about it or I would get home in half that time) and I see this bold grasshopper riding outside on the passenger side. He moved around quite a bit, despite being blasted with winds as high as 50mph. Look at his antennae blown back by the wind. I started worrying about him (which seems to be my main pastime - worrying about stuff), because I was afraid he was going to be dislodged to meet with a sudden splat behind me, so I started driving more carefully - like having a baby on board. ;-)

He rode the car all the way home to the driveway after riding at least 5-6 miles, then flew away after I nudged him with a leaf.

I wonder if this was a joy ride or absolute terror for this awesome little dude?

Running to help

That's our Mayor, Lee Leffingwell, as Batman. It's a fitting choice of superhero for him because this is a bat-oriented city. The reason these folks are addressing the press dressed up like this is to promote the CASA Superhero Run on Sep. 30. CASA is "Court Appointed Special Advocates" and their purpose is to help abused kids to get into a safer situation. The motto of the run is "Every child needs a hero, but abused children need superheroes." This video is just too darned cute.

2011 CASA Superhero Run from CASA of Travis County on Vimeo.

On Oct 20 there will be a differently-themed run called the Austin Thong Jog, held in honor of the memory of Leslie and benefiting the homeless. This is the first one, so there's no archived footage, only this little promo.

A bit less dressed than the first event, but probably more dressed than this annual World Naked Bike Rise that Austin participates in every June.


The Thong Jog happens at the same time that MrB likes to ride his bike (in costume) in the Tour de Fat Parade so we might miss the underwear spectacle. I can't run or jog (with this misbehaving foot of mine) and never could ride a cycle with fewer than 3 wheels - so I'm pretty much a freak and a permanent spectator, but I'm glad for the folks who do get to play along.

How do I look?

[Seen in parking lot last Friday.]

Chillin' with music in the extended dog days

Well, the "Dog Days" trudge on still hot as hell (98-101°F, ~37°C) and no relief for another month. Apparently, the Dog Days are called that because in ancient times they thought that the Dog Star, Sirius, was helping to heat things up. I'm still avoiding some outdoor activities, but on a hot night with a spectacular blue moon overhead we did make it out to see MilkDrive co-billed with Phoebe Hunt. If you've not heard of Phoebe, you might have heard of Belleville Outfit, and band she used to be part of. She has played in and toured with many bands and done plenty of session work. Now she's got her solo thing going. We were happily surprised to see that Carrie Rodriguez stopped by and played a tune with her. Check it out for wonderful fiddle goodness:

Here is MilkDrive with one of their new ones, and I promise this one will stick in your head in a good way:


This morning we are going to a kickass brunch show, hopefully indoors, featuring amazing guitar and vocals from Jeff Plankenhorn, Guy Forsyth, Malford Milligan, David Grissom and others. Wow.

For no reason at all, other than I love the idea of it, here's a squirrel playing electric banjo.

You can buy this on a t-shirt here.