"The good 'ole Blues Brothers Boys Band?"

Rabbiteach convinced me to go out and listen to some music. One of her friends plays in the Burnett Jones Band, and the were playing at Poodie's Hilltop. We got there a little early, which is shickong since I managed to drive about 20 miles further then I should have (and then had to back track). It was a blast! Burnett Jones sounded great, and Poodie's looked like it hadn't changed since the last time we went (probably 2 years ago).


(taken with my phone)

Burnett Jones plays a mixture of Classic Country, Texas Country (Pat Green, Cory Morrow, etc), and their own stuff. I need to get their CD as it is sometimes difficult to hear in Poodie's, but the custom stuff was good.

Following Burnett Jones' set, they had a band from Dallas called Eleven Hundred Springs. 1100 was even louder then Burnett Jones. Maybe i'm getting old, but I like to be able to actually hear the music, not just feel it through the sound waves. They also didn't sound much like their album, but that could have been them trying to excite the crowd. We left mid way through their set. Not because we didn't like them, but I didn't want to drink anymore beer (BJJ in the morning), and because the combination of smoke and volume was giving us a headache. I'm still going to download their album.


Sorry for the crappy pictures. Poodie's is an "interesting" place. I need to take a good camera there and take some portraits. Lots of character in the faces of the people there.

Food meme

Omnivore's Hundred
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.There is little if anything I won't try.

I attempted to cleanup the formatting, but it was too much work.


The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile (if you count Alligator)
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects (not on purpose, although I would eat chocolate ants)
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob Chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost or brunost
75. Roadkill (well, unless I hit it and it was fresh)
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Edible Flowers
89. Horse - Not that I was aware of anyway
90. Criollo chocolate (different from regular chocolate?)
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa (I've eaten Rose petals, but not Harissa)
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermadour (I'm not 100% sure)
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake (rattlesnake specifically)

Weekends are for resting

Stone work is nearing completion. That is, until I tear the whole thing out and make changes. Again. I'm not 100% satisfied with the work. Who knew I would be a perfectionist on this. Did I mention the stones are heavy? Estimates put each "brick" at around 110-125 pounds. I may tear out the right side and redo it again.



I may just add a 3rd row of stone on the right side (starting under the door - which means I need to buy a stone hammer so I can shave down the bricks).

In other news, I started looking at going back to school. Yes, it is stupid, and I didn't really enjoy classes when I was in undergrad, but a Masters in Marketing would probably be beneficial down the road. Of course, my craptastic GPA means I need to do well on the GRE. Who knows, I may wait a couple more years. I don't particularly want to go back. Decisions decisions.

BJJ has been interesting. We did some drills that while not fitting with "my game" (which is being defined so may in fact fit with theoretical game) were challenging. Essentially starting from the "heimlich drop takedown" we went to a scramble drill. At first I waited until the underneath guy got set then tried to play a slower stretching game. That didn't work, because I didn't adapt appropriately. I got a bit frustrated, and used that to eventually start moving better. I'm not explosive (shocking I know), so I tried to be more technical. Until I started being more dynamic Doug was able to move around more. Once I started staying heavy and moving first it worked better. In retrospective I guess I did get something out of the drills. Open rolling Doug had me in some precarious positions, but I managed to defend and escape each time. He went for an arm bar he likes, and I stacked and escaped then grabbed an ankle lock, and tapped him. Not too shabby, but I can't fall back on ankle/foot locks each time. Plus, I think he was being careful of his knee. Still, it was perfectly positioned.

I hope to have at least one if not two Dove hunts coming soon. One in South Texas, and I'm heading out to Midland for a couple days also. Dates aren't firm yet, as I have a BJJ seminar, a BJJ open mat in San Marcos, and a wedding party the same day as the open mat. Idle hands are the Devil's playground, or somethign along those lines. October should have another grappling lab at Travis Tooke's gym again. I will bring my camera, and do a full writeup if/when possible.

I'm a glutton for punishment.

Today I had 6000 pounds of limestone dry stack delivered. At some point last week I had the bright idea of putting stone around the lower part of our backyard shed. Anything left over will go towards a new backyard flower bed.

Some people call it optimism. After looking at the mound of stone (and moving one to see roughly the scale of the stone), I call it lunacy. To top it off, once I get this done I am probably going to order more. Heck at $70 a ton it's cheap and better then Gold's Gym.



Wish me luck.