I ran, and you probably guessed it from the title, 18.25 miles today. It took just under 3 hours. That is a long damn run, let me tell you what. If someone says, “Hey, wanna go for an 18.25 mile run?” you just tell ‘em “Hell no, do I look stupid to you?”.
I ran by Lake Pflugerville. I had no idea there even was a lake. Neither did Google Maps. Turns out they built the thing in 2005/6. It has a nice path around it, I’m guessing we’ll go for a walk there sometime soon. There isn’t a single large tree so it won’t be any fun at all this Summer. All in all it was a nice surprise.
On my run I once again saw my favorite road warning sign of all time. It is a very common sign here in Texas :
“Observe Warning Signs
State Law”
Yes, a warning sign telling you that it is State Law to observe warning signs. Seems to me that if you were planning on ignoring warning signs, you’d just ignore this one too. Maybe they have some minimum number of signs per mile they have to meet and this seemed as good as any. They’ve got signs reminding you to do regular maintenance to your car too. Big state, nothing else to look at, means lots of room for road signs I guess.
Another 8 miles and it’ll be a marathon.
After starting a one hour fix-it project that is now turning into a full weekend project (more on the project later) we decided that a dinner out was in order. We’d heard good things about a local restaurant, It’s Italian, and it was a nice night so we decided to walk. We cut through the park along the trail and then a few more streets. We figured 15 minutes, tops. With Wesley doing his own walking though, it took a little longer. Almost an hour actually. At one point a man across the street was walking down the sidewalk in a manner that could only generously be called a mosey. Maybe he was ambling. I’m just not up on my Texas walks so I can’t say exactly which of the two he was doing. But there was no doubt he was walking really slowly. He quickly caught up to us, passed by us and then got several blocks ahead of us. The point is that we were going slowly. The way home wasn’t any faster.
When we got there the restaurant was a little under staffed and everyone seemed to be surprised that they were so busy so early. We greeted by the co-owner just as described in this Austin360 article. She was exceedingly friendly and talked a lot to everybody. She greeted at least 4 groups of people by name. Despite a ton of positive reviews like this one our food wasn’t that great. First my cola had a hair and then a shard of glass in it. They replaced it with much apologies. Next the bread was warm, but not exactly great. The fried raviolis were pretty good, but I wouldn’t say spectacular. The pizza margarita was tasty but so salty I couldn’t eat more than a couple of small slices. We actually went there because of the pizza. Not because it was supposed to be great, but because we had a free coupon. It was good, the ingredients were fresh and it was well prepared, it was just way, way, way too salty.
Jillian was the hit of the restaurant. She had three kids aged 3-4 come visit her at the table. She stayed in a good mood the whole time which was nice. Wesley did a pretty good job too, but didn’t eat very much. He did have a good time using the pepper mill that was on the table. It took him longer than you’d think to learn that pepper is hot when you put enough on bread that it appears gray. He sucked his milk dry and then begged for a few sips of cola which he got.
I’m guessing we’ll go back. It has so many positive reviews that it is probably worth a second try. And while the other three restaurants in the same strip mall have lots of empty tables it is always full. Plus it is really, really close to home. Maybe we’ll visit again when it warms up a little and the patio seating is open.
Tags: Austin, It's Italian, italian, Restaurant, Wells Branch
Well, I missed it because I was in Houston for the day working on some access control stuff. Chuy’s the local Tex-Mex mecha had their annual January 8th celebration. For those of you that don’t know January 8th is Elvis’ birthday.
Chuy’s always has the Elvis Presley Memorial Platter as well as a few other Elvis themed dishes on the menu, but January 8th is special in a few ways.
- If you dress up as Elvis you get to eat for free. No half-assed costumes here though. You’ve got to do it up right.
- They have Elvis impersonators at the restaurants for the evening.
- You get a free Twinkie with your meal.
Ah well…Maybe next year.
Tags: Austin, Chuy's, Elvis, Mexican Food
On my run today I noticed a few things that stood out.
- The place where whiskey bottles go to die. About 150, maybe more, whiskey bottles under a tree. I wish I had my camera.
- The ugliest house I have ever seen. It wasn’t dilapidated and there wasn’t anything wrong with it, but it was just the least architecturally attractive house I have ever seen. If I had built that house I would say knock it down. Try again.
- Smells. I smell a lot of things when I run. Normally I don’t much notice what the air smells like, but when I run I notice. Maybe because I’m breathing so much, maybe because I’m crazy bored. Today it was pancakes followed by flowers followed by car exhaust followed by BBQ. Then it hit me. McDonald’s french fries. I was so close to running in there and demanding all their fries and eating until my heart burst from all the greasy goodness.
- A house with a printed notice on their door stating “No Flyers”. So they put up a flyer to tell people not to put up flyers. They live in our neighborhood. We get a few, maybe 2 a month, but not enough to have that ugly thing permanently affixed to our front door.
Tags: Running