My birthday, hey

I tell you this really because I think I did such a fine, fine job of enjoying some of the fruits of Austin's bounty.... and to give you some ideas for fun times if you live in Austin, TX but are feeling blah.

On my birthday eve I was going to take Jack to Playland for some roller skating (as per his suggestion) but I got lost so we ended up going to Madras Pavilion for lunch, which was quite capital, I must say. Not only was the food divine but sometimes I forget that Jack (at least when I get him alone) is some of the finest company around. " Let's try to say something that no one else has ever said before. I'll go first: 'Your brain smells like moon pies'. "

Then I actually got to go out on the town with my man, which is an all-too-rare occurrence, and re-discovered that he'snot too shabby as company goes, himself. We went for a drink at Takoba (very nice outdoor seating) and then we went to Eastside Kings, which is this food trailer in the backyard of the Liberty Bar on E. 6th St. The Liberty Bar is just this dank hole of a bar with saggy picnic tables in the back and smokers everywhere.... so not my scene anymore. But one must endure if one intends to partake of the divine food at Eastside Kings, which was featured on Anthony Bourdain's food show, No Reservations, when he came to Austin recently. Ooh la la. We had this green papaya salad, a brussel sprout salad (really good), and chicken buns. They also had pork buns and maybe even beef buns, and they all make me giggle just thinking about them.

Then the next day was my real real birthday, and I had all my kids all day long (no school) which coulda been sorta oy gvey but I was pretty down with it so it was cool. We went for a ramble in Shoal Creek and came home and made a chocklit cake and I have to say my kids are pretty damn cool. Though even though we had the cake with candles and the whole deal and had spent the whole day together they all bawled when I left (to go treat myself to more pleasures, as per my birthday wishes).... craving even more celebration, I suppose.

I had some birthday cash burnin' a hole in my pocket so I decided to spend it as frivolously as possible on bran' spankin' new books which I hardly ever do. I had a yen to go browsin' at Domy Books.... that place is just beyond the beyond. It's got a whole 'nother world of books that you are just not going to find at your average book store, even awesome alterna-stores like Bookpeople. I need to go back... there was still loads more I yearned to peruse. I ended up buying two James Kochalka kid books to sock away for the young ones for Christmas. They're so great! One is called Dragon Puncher. I can't wait to give it to my testerone-riffic four year old. He's going to love it so much. They were tons of great kids books there... I did not know this but I will be back. I almost bought the new Lynda Barry ( I love her so and was SO Excited to see this follow up to What it Is!) but.... my bro is so sweet and always remembers that she's my favorite (he bought my One Hundred Demons, which is one of my favorite books of all time) so I thought I'd better leave it lest he buy it for me at some later date. I ended up buying this in my effort to be fun and frivolous.... not sure if it was the best choice... maybe I should have bought this....

Then I rode my bike to the Alamo Drafthouse to see the Magnetic Fields documentary but it was sold out (update: I went and saw it later.... I love the band but the doc was rather pointless, I'd say) so I went to Blue Dahlia and had my favorite goat cheese salad. And had the enormous fun of getting to peruse the East Austin Studio Tour booklet and fantasize about all the great art and cool folks I'm going to see. Ta-da! That was my two-day birthday extravaganza. Are you shocked at my decadence? That's just how I do. Happy birthday to ME!