austin_tycho | yansa weekend

...and by weekend, it's a vague term that covers some or all of my days off. In this instance, some. Friday he arrived and we decided to introduce him to the wonder that is/are Round Rock Donuts. Then it was necessary to go see the actual round rock after which the city is named... not terribly impressive, but a nice photo op at least. Then we sat around and had some brunch, including tasty hash browns by hub. After that I thought it'd be cool to go driving around to show

yansa a little bit of the lay of the land, mainly the beginning of the Hill Country to the west of town. So we tooled down 360, and it occurred to me that Wild Basin would have some neat information. We checked out a wall-sized geological map of Texas, then I thought 'well, we can poke around outside a little' which turned into a hike down to the little waterfall and creek. This was not a bad hike down, but going back up was hellish. I'm in bad shape as it is, but the heat (over 100 degrees, and some humidity) was what kicked my ass. Fortunately,

yansa was very cool about letting me stop many times along the way in the shade and not die and stuff. I had thought about taking him to Zilker, but by then it was pushing 5 so we went home. We had a quick dip in the pool and then decided to go for Mexican.

yansa was introduced to the wonder of a Pechuga Antonios- a concoction that consists of cheese, chicken breast, cheese, mushrooms, bacon, and cheese. Mmm yeah! If I hadn't've hiked my ass off earlier I would have felt much worse about eating one. We thought about hitting Fry's but they were closed, so we hung out and went to bed early since we were going to head out to Hamilton Pool fairly early the next day (Saturday).

I awoke Saturday and called Hamilton to make sure they were open. They sort of weren't; the park was open, but the bacteria level in the water was such that they weren't letting people swim in it. Ecch. So once everyone showed up, we debated where else to go. We decided on Barton Springs, and took 2 vehicles. The chatty people went in one and the quiet ones went in the other, interestingly. This division continued, with the more talkative in a little circle chatting away, and the quiet people a little bit away, sitting and silently people-watching. The water was pretty cold, and I was the only one that wanted to swim for any period of time. I got a new pair of goggles and enjoyed a lap around the pool, which was full of perfectly clear water. I also sat at the shallow end for a little while and communed with the damsel flies (like dragonflies only cuter) that sat on my hands.

Someone said they were hungry, and lunch was planned. We went to another Austin favorite, Hut's Hamburgers. I'd never been there, but I'd heard a lot about it and enjoyed it. The food was fine, and the conversation was a little more co-mingled... it did get pretty noisy in there, so we spilled out and split up again. The chatty folks wanted to go to Book People, and the quiet people (who have discovered Amazon and Half.com, perhaps) went back home to chill. Some silly movies were watched and naps were taken. Then friend

onyxlynxx came over and we all went to Fry's- not an especially Austin thing, but

yansa doesn't have one where he lives and the place is geek heaven. We then returned home and ordered some Austin's Pizza. We watched 2 shows

yansa had never seen before- Iron Chef and Trading Spaces. It was a particularly vile TS too, the one where Hildi takes a perfectly nice bathroom and fucks it all up by stapling six thousand garish fake flowers to the wallpaper. Hideous! We were going to try to hit another Austin favorite, Amy's Ice Cream, but it was getting pretty late and we were all full of pizza and sleepy.

onyxlynxx went home and we all went to bed.

yansa took off this morning sometime after I left for my stupid job. He seemed to have fun; I hope I didn't inflict too much socialization on him. It was a lot for me, but there was enough quiet times in-between that I had a fairly good time. Additionally, I think if I were to hike and swim that much all the time, I'd start losing some serious weight, and I will try to work that in. Maybe hikes at Wild Basin first thing in the morning would be less deadly. Now about that diet... eep. Tonight- salad!