Alamo in Austin???

Last night was spent celebrating Tracy's last year in her 20's. Her 29th birthday is coming up next week and we went down to Austin to kick up our heels. We started off at Alamo Drafthouse. It is a cinema that serves beer, wine, appetizers, sandwiches, burgers, pizza and desserts. The admission is comparable to any normal theatre and food prices were about what you would pay in a restaurant. We hit some traffic on the way, but made it there in just enough time to find three seats together and look over the menu before the movie started. The seating is like a traditional theater except every other row of seats has been removed and replaced with a long table. You write down your order on paper and place it on your table like a flag for your waitperson to see it. They pick it up and bring your order back all without talking and limited distraction. We watched The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada . It was a great movie and I can definitely see it being one of the best movies of 2006. I know it is early in the year to be making such a claim, but the acting was great, the cinematography was great, the story was great...I'm sure you catch my drift.

After the movie, Tracy, Christine and I headed into downtown Austin. We roamed about on 6th Street for a bit, but there honestly wasn't a whole lot going on. I was surprised how quiet it was for a Friday night. The Eric Tessmer Band is finishing up a Midwest tour and I have to admit, 6th St. just isn't the same without them. Maybe all of my future trips downtown should involve seeing them. I'm not really much of a bar person, anyways. I just enjoy live music. And watching people can be fun, too. Especially watching drunk people. We got home just before 1am and the sitter said the kids (Zane and Tracy's girls) were good and went to bed without any problems. The photo below was taken by the parking attendant, as we were leaving.

Today was a great day. Zane and I enjoyed the morning together, then it was off to the Child Development Center on post for their Saturday Get Away program. While the kids were playing there for four hours, Tracy and I went to lunch at Olive Garden and did some shopping. It was nice to have that time to ourselves and be able to enjoy all adult conversation. After I picked Zane up, we headed over to Lowe's. I bought some new flowers for my planter out front. I took out the old plants and put in the new ones. I will post pics of them tomorrow. I hope I didn't overdo it. Chris (Abe's Mom) is my mentor when it comes to anything gardening related. I don't know what the heck I'm doing, so we will see if they survive. For all I know, I planted them wrong!! I just finished watching Cinderella Man. It was very good. I had been wanting to see it for a long time, and I wasn't disappointed. It really got me interested in James Braddock, the man. I even looked him up on the internet after the movie to see what became of him and his family. Well, here it is, my bedtime. After only getting 6 hours last night (I'm one of those people that prefers 8 hours), I'm sure I will sleep well tonight. Good night.

PS- I almost forgot to mention that today I discovered that Killeen is getting a KOHL's!! Woo Hoo!! They haven't even poured the slab yet, but I'm excited. Can you tell??