Song Statistics

Eagle just alerted me to some startling statistics concerning some songs you may be familiar with.

Los SuperAvengers!!!!

Here they are - Los SuperAvengers - awesome look! My video refused to upload, but if you want to get a listen to their music, go to:



Both the music and the look reminded us of Pulp Fiction. It's worth checking out. Rx

This weekend my mom came to visit.

She arrived Thursday afternoon. Her flight was delayed due to ice on the plane in KC. Ice? What's that? It was cool here when she arrived - only 60's. But warmed up over the course of the weekend.

I greeted her at the airport with birthday cake, complete with candles b/c it's her birthday Tuesday! Happy Birthday, mom!

First things first, we went to the Red Room for drinks and appetizers...they provide people with ponchos to stay warm. We needed ours - like I said it was only in the 60's that night :)

We took her to Rudy's BBQ Thursday night for birthday brisket ;) Then ate cake and played games at home.

Friday morning we went for a hike in the park with Louie. Then we went to the Outlet Mall in Round Rock for some SHOPPING! On the way we stopped at my office to show her around. After shopping we ate at La Madaline's, a french bistro, for lunch.

That evening, while I worked, Jack took her to a dinner and a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse. This place is great because they serve your food and beer while you watch the film. They saw "Be Kind Rewind". Then Jack took her for a little campus tour and a trip to the lab. His work never ends.

Saturday morning we packed up and went to San Antonio. Got to see the Alamo and went shopping and ate on the Riverwalk. Long drive, but fun, and we ate chili and watched movies Sat night.

Sunday morning we all went to Chez Zee for brunch with mom's friend, Pat. Afterward, we put on our hiking gear and went to Pedernales State Park. (see link on the side).

We worked up an appetite hiking for 2 hours

That night went to The Oasis for dinner.

After dinner it was off for drinks downtown. We found a couple live bands that were both really good. I want to post a video of one because their look is awesome, but I got an error while doing it, so Jack will give it a shot when he gets off work.

San Antonio

Roxanne and her mom are going to San Antonio, unfortunately I have to work and will miss it. I told her to ask where the basement is at the end of the tour (that is a pee-wee's big adventure joke for those of you who dont remember that classic film) I am sure she will learn all about how the brave Texans defended their land recently taken from the Mexicans who recently took it from the indians. A proud history indeed. Also in san antonio is the space needle.

okay, its not the space needle, it is actually the Tower of the Americas... it has a rotating resturaunt on top. It is supposed to be almost 80 degrees today, whoo hoo!

jb out

Meet the Frog... FROM HELL!!!

A "frog from hell" fossil was found recently in Madagascar. I like the Genus name they gave it "Beelzebufo". I like frogs. This artists interpretation of what Beelzebufo may have looked like is strikingly similar to Hypno-toad from Futurama (see below)

Expect more posts like these as I am sorting bacteria (with a laser beam) for the next few months, it is pretty mindless work so I have a lot of down time.

jb out

Today I have fulfilled a dream. With the help of my photographer Roxanne, my recent publication in ACS Chem. Bio, and a sneakily arranged picture frame, I was able to get an image of Louie in press. Booh ya!!!

How Texas (and the rest of the universe) came to be

We have found Texans to be very...well.... Texocentric... this may be a stereotype of Texans, but it is absolutely true, from the Dairy Queen commercials touting "that's what I like about Texas!" (as if they are the only ones with Dairy Queens) to Anheuser Busch actually making a special brew for the sophisticated Texan palate.... Ziegen Bock... I am serious, this product exists, Bud Light.... for Texans ONLY!!!! (I bought it once thinking it was a microbrew... gross)

Anyway, at no time was the Texocenterism more evident (and slightly embarrasing) than at the Texas Memorial Museum. We stumbled upon this awesome museum while showing Russ and Rachel around the campus. Below are some of the neat skeletons and animals we saw. It was real fun, and to their credit they had a quite extensive section teaching about evolution (Take that Kansas school board!!!).

The Origins of the universe section was hilarious though....

Can you see that spot on the left above the galaxy, thats Texas... the lesser states and continents formed around the gravitational pull of the state's Ego. Seriously though, the whole room was devoted to how Texas was created, as if the earth were just a scaffold for placing Texas on... It was great...
We enjoyed it emmensely though, and we will have to make it a stop on the tour of the town for everyone who visits. The fossils and geology were simply amazing... below is a sampling...

Here we have a Monkfish skeleton and a preserved goosefish... These are only a fraction of the awesome dead things we saw!!!!

I dont know the name of this thing so I am going to call it Armadillis giganticus. Rachel is included in the background for scale... The approximate dimensions are 3 rachels by 6 rachels by 4.5 rachels.

Bigspikeybackasaurous is seen here, although rachel is not in this picture for scale, the card with the name of this extinct beast is 4x6 cubits.

Here are more cool dinosaurs, I envisioned Fred Flinstone (or more likely that rascal Bam-Bam) using the one seen here as a primitive scateboard.

This sea beast is kept behind glass for our protection, not his...

Finally, this specimen is the gigantic Bison, a distant cousin of the longhorn, the only cow variety worth mentioning as all others are inferior.

jb

Russ and Rachel come to visit!!

Texas met Philadelphia this weekend when Russ and Rachel came to visit us in Austin...

It was a weekend jam-packed with fun and excitement!!!!

First we went out to dinner on the Bluffs of Lake Travis. Margaritas and mirth were had as we watched the sunset.

After an eventful night on Sixth street (the madri gras of Austin) we set out to Enchanted Rock... I know, I know, you may have seen Enchanted Rock pics before, but it is the coolest place to go near Austin and it allowed us to work up an appetite in preparation for brisket!!!!!

After Enchanted Rock, we went to Coopers in Llano and ate and ate magical brisket!!!

After digesting a little we went tailgating at the Draught house (we were literally sitting in camping chairs behind our car at a bar, thats how they do it in Austin) .

Howdy Pardner....

Sunday morning, it was more hiking to work off the food-filled weekend. Here we are along one of Louie's favorite hikes on the Greenbelt.

Then we went to lunch at Trudy's and had "migas" (egg scrambler mixed with tortilla strips and picante) breakfast fajitas and Mexican Eggs Benedict (migas with muffin, ham, and queso topping). Afterward we took a campus tour.....

We found a museum on campus and will post more about it later....An especially fun exhibit explained to us how Texas was formed in the beginning of time, so Russ and Rachel got to find out that Texas really is the center of the universe.

From the archives...

I was moving some files to my external HD when I found this awesome blast from the past (no pun intended).

Notice the blue flame at the very end when Dr. F's hand catches on fire momentarily...

Those were the days.... when wine parties ended with reniassance fair like revelry instead of holes in the drywall.

Speaking of Sick

Well, I think I have the flu...this is the first time in 3 days I've had the strength to really sit at my computer, so I thought I'd share that wonderful news with everyone. This is me below:

On Thursday I couldn't even get out of bed. I've gotten to the point now where I CAN get out of bed, but still feel dizzy and when I cough I feel like there is a hammer hitting my head (and I'm coughing a lot). Jack even had to type an email to my friend for me Thursday saying I couldn't do anything that night. We were supposed to go to a Bangles concert. Yes, The Bangles, (can you believe it?) were touring through Austin and I missed them...oh the humanity.