Friends With Kids

It's not a new revelation, but it becomes clearer every time we're home that life is going to be different when we return to the US permanently. We have very few remaining friends who don't have children. Nap and bedtime schedules, feeding times, and babysitter availability all present challenges to meeting up with our friends socially. Because they are not quite as mobile or flexible, it's basically up to us making the effort if we want to see them. This is isn't to say that our friends are not flexible and don't make an effort to see us, but the point is that we have less restrictions to work around.
Because we don't have kids, we've started to make friends with a younger group of friends, which has worked out well and allows us not to have to eat dinner with the geriatric crowd at 5pm. It also forces us to be more outgoing to keep up with those in their early and mid 20's. To be honest, I couldn't really keep up with others in their early and mid 20's when I myself was that age. It makes one think that if we continue down the path and don't have kids, would we need to continue to skew lower for our friends. Would we have to keep making new friends that are in their 20's? We can pull it off now, but I doubt it will work when we're in our 40's and 50's. Jenn and I love spending time together, but in a way, it could end up being lonely. I often wonder if this is a reason some people have children, to keep up with the social circle. Otherwise, naturally, you end up getting left out because people with kids are going to start hanging out with other people with kids. We see it as being much easier to make friends in a new city when one has a child. I do not mean to imply that this is a bad reason to have children or that it's the only factor considered, but it has to be a part of the decision making, whether consciously or sub-consciously.

WIA: The food in Austin is delicious, but it's so much more delicious when I've been missing it. Absence really does make the heart grow fonder. We tried the new 2nd Bar and Kitchen in the Austonian. It's very similar to a  lot of the new wave of places with micro brews, a burger, beef short ribs, and some other good, simple dishes that are way overpriced. We shared the burger, which was pretty good. Everyone else seemed to enjoy what they ordered. It's a fun atmosphere and a great location downtown. I'd definitely go back for a drink and some of their small plates. We ate at some old and new favorites, including La Condessa, which is still too trendy for its own good, but the drinks are so outstanding that it makes up for any other shortcomings. After bursting on the scene on South Congress a couple of years ago, right after we moved away, Hopdoddy has already become my favorite burger place in town. I had the Primetime, which was kobe beef with brie cheese, truffle aioli, arugula, caramelized onions, and steak sauce. At $12, it is a lot to pay for a burger, but it was worth every penny, and I probably would have paid more. Elizabeth Street Cafe opened recently with a French-Vietnamese menu. It's as weird as it sounds and expensive for what it is (you can get Pho at a number of places around town for a few bucks), but the restaurant is small, cute, and comfortable, and we had a nice date night there. On the barbecue path, we finally made it to Franklin's, which is all the rage, both locally and nationally. We showed up just after 9:30 and got in line. There were probably around 30 people already there, but we jumped in line with friends, who were probably 15 people back. The place opened at 11 and we walked out of there with our to go order at 11:45. We were bringing it over to eat with our friends Josh and Libby, and their son Avi. The meat was all excellent, except for the sausage, which I thought was fine, but nothing special. The brisket was out of this world and we also really enjoyed the turkey, which was so moist. The problem is the wait. There are so many other places to go in town where the barbecue is perfectly good that it's hard to accept a two hour wait for it at Franklin's.

So, on that note, we also had barbecue at Stiles Switch, where we didn't have to wait at all. It wasn't on the same level as Franklin's, but it was still very good. Jenn and I both like beef ribs and they have good ones, though they were a bit fatty. For Sunday early lunch, we met up with our friends, Roger, Leslie, and their 3 boys at Lucy's Fried Chicken, which has the same chef at Olivia's, one of our favorites. It's a fun place, especially when you can eat on the patio on a nice weather day like we did. It wasn't amazing fried chicken, but it was still good and a fun place. None of the sides blew us away, but the pie for dessert was good.
We hadn't been to Fonda San Miguel in years, but made a return trip for dinner. The menu is interior Mexican and it's known for being very expensive given you can get great Tex-Mex or Mexican food around town for very little money. I had the tasty duck enchiladas and was very pleased. Lastly, we had ice cream one evening at Lick, the hot, new ice cream place that serves locally sourced, organic ice cream. I am partial to Amy's and will always be, but thought the ice cream here was very good. It reminded me a lot of the gelato we've been eating in Europe with how natural it tasted. I can't exactly remember, but I think I had one scoop of chocolate and one caramel.

WID: We saw a movie at the new Violet Crowne cinema downtown. The small theater and comfortable seats made for a pleasurable movie watching experience. The tickets were a little pricey, but it was nice to have a reserved seat, which allowed us to take our time at dinner beforehand and not get to the theater an hour in advance to get a decent seat. We saw "Friends With Kids", which tells the story of six people, 4 of which are couples and two who are not, who were all friends before having kids and then jumps several years in the future and shows what life is now like with children. The two that are not a couple decide they should have a kid together because they can do it "right". It's a totally unrealistic premise, but if you can get past that, the movie is very funny. There were parts that got a little bit too sappy and dramatic for me, but all in all, I liked it. If you had kids, I could see not thinking the movie is funny at all and probably a bit insulting, but for people who don't have kids and are used to observing others with their kids, it'll be right up your alley.   

WIS: We stayed at the aLoft for part of the time and then in Round Rock at the Homewood Suites when the rooms at the aLoft shot up to $300/night during South by Southwest. The aLoft reminds me a lot of the small, modern European hotels. The rooms are small and basic, but cleanly designed in a way to maximize space. It's inexpensive though and being located centrally at the Domain is really nice. I used to stay at Homewood properties when I traveled around the US for work and they are great for long stays. It's like having your own apartment. The hotel was nice, but it was annoying driving back and forth into Austin from Round Rock whenever we wanted to go anywhere.

WAM: I got in three basketball games (one a week) with some co-workers. It was great to get out and play since it had been so long since I'd done it. It made me miss being in Austin, knowing that I could probably have a weekly game if I lived there. It was very hard getting comfortable again on the court, especially with my shooting. I didn't realize at the time how lucky I was in college when I could get a basketball game going pretty much whenever I wanted since there were always people around who were up for that sort of thing. I love team sports though, so it felt great getting out on the court, even if the games weren't the prettiest.

WTF: We spent a good amount of time looking around at condos, apartments, and houses, to assess the environment for when we move back. We couldn't believe how high rents are now, especially downtown, where they are nearing levels only seen in Manhattan. It seems the better value now is in buying.

Airplane Reviews - to Austin and back on BA

For my most recent work trip to Austin, we flew British Airways there and American Airlines back. As always, I find British to be considerably better than American. The service and food is better and there is a much bigger movie selection. Having said that, the flights were all fine. On the flight back to the US, the flight attendant stopped by my seat, asked if I was "Mr. Lazarus" and asked if there was anything at all he could do for me or if he could get me anything. This was my first trip as an Executive Platinum flyer, so I guess this is what they do for the one or maybe two individuals who are at that frequent flyer status and aren't sitting in business or first class. His tone and facial expression were really saying, "I actually have some level of sympathy for you given that you have flown over 100,000 miles sitting in coach and you are still sitting in coach. Is there anything I can do to ease the pain?" Jenn's suggestion was that I tell him what I really want is to move up to business class and see if he can he do anything about that. We watched two movies each way and surprisingly there were more hits than misses.

On the way there, we passed the time with a Ryan Gosling double feature. I still hate the son of a bitch because of having to sit through the Notebook, but he redeemed himself a little with Crazy, Stupid Love, so I was willing to give him another shot. First, we watched Drive, which had the feel of a Quentin Tarantino film though I don't think he had anything to do with it. It was an action-y, but with a good script and excellent acting. Many actors (Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, and many others) could learn something by watching how engaging Gosling was without talking too much. Albert Brooks was great in it, but I could have done without the fork in the eye. I loved the movie. It was very violent, but entertaining from start to finish. My only real complaint was (spoiler alert) Christina Hendricks getting her face blown off. If you're going to put Joan Holloway in your movie, you should keep her on screen and you sure shouldn't blow her face off. On the bright side, they went for the face and didn't mess with her best assets. You think she had a rider in her contract?

Anyway, Ides of March was the second Gosling feature. The acting was good, and it was a well executed film, but I couldn't really get into it. I also found it to be fairly predictable. I also think it's weird that Evan Rachel Wood has been around for several years and truthfully, I have no idea how old she is, but it seems like she's been playing teenagers for about 10 years. On the return trip, we were on American, which had a much more limited selection. Since we had flown over in February and were flying back in March, we were excited to see the new month's releases. This is our life. For the second year in a row, we watched the year's best picture Oscar winner on an airplane, and immersed ourselves in The Artist. It was just as good as advertised. It's definitely hard to get into because it's a silent film, but the story is good, the acting is excellent, and overall, it's just a very clever and creative movie. Because there is such a small amount of originality in entertainment today, it probably got a little more attention than it maybe deserved, but it was good and if I had a vote, I would have voted for it over the The Descendants. Actually, if I had a vote, I probably would have voted for Beginners, which was the best movie I saw last year.

Jenn couldn't stay awake for our second feature, The Muppet Movie. I grew up on the Muppets and have seen all the movies and was excited to see it. To say this was disappointing is an understatement. I don't question how this movie made money because it was from people like me and other parents of my generation taking their children to see it, but what I do question is all the good reviews of it. The story is so dumb and while the original Muppet Movie is really clever and written confidently in a way that the audience is trusted to get the joke, this one is like a bad stand-up comedian feeling the need to explain the jokes to the audience. The songs also don't work at all and don't seem to fit at all with the tone of the rest of the movie. I have no appreciation for what it is they were trying to do. Lastly, the voices and personalities of the Muppets were different. I realized the voices would be slightly different because Jim Henson passed away, but I don't know why they would change the tone and personalities and the characters. Fozzie was like a shell of his former self. It was sad. I like Amy Adams and Jason Segel and would be more than happy to watch them together in another movie, but as usual, I think we're better off leaving nostalgia and our old movies alone, especially when they have stood the test of time and are still good.