CONTENTS

While waiting for my parents' arrival,
I ran into a candidate for Governor. 

MOM AND DAD COME TO AUSTIN

My parents made their way out to Austin to catch my show and see the sights.  So, in-between putting the finishing touches on my show, I played tour guide in my own town and showed them a bunch of what Austin has to offer. Here's how the visit went down:

I had warned my parents about the Texas heat - it'd been in the high nineties the days before they arrived, but somewhere between California and Texas, they picked up the rain.  And so, with my parents arriving from sunny California in shorts and sandals, they were greeted with humid, temperamental Texas spring thunderstorms. 

Our first stop from the Airport was Bolm Studios - where I showed them around my stomping grounds.  Of course, the last time Mom saw the studio - it looked like this, so as much of a mess everything was, I think she was comforted by the relative tranquility and order that has sprung throughout my life.

I always uphold the bad tradition of making a sign for arriving guests.  This trip to the airport was no different, and when my embarrassed parents were descending the stairs from the gates and notice the sign, my Mom excitedly started to chirp, "I'm Mom, I'm Mom!"

My Dad wanted to check out the stadium the National Champion Longhorns play in.  Of course - he arrived in a good year to do so - Texas is champion of football and baseball.  So I took him to the oversized football stadium, and then we snaked our way across campus over to the baseball diamond, where a collection of odd mobile bleachers were parked outside of the centerfield wall.

No trip to Austin is complete without seeing the absolutely marvelous capitol building.  Renovated at the onset of the nineties, it features old styled grandiose architecture with some innovative design in the new underground wing.  Not to be missed: the portraits of all the state senators and representatives in the basement.  Talk about criminals running wild, spend some time looking at those portraits of evil men someday.

We filled in all the cracks in our schedule by making the necessary stops to make the Austin experience as robust as possible.  I brought my parents over to Blue Genie, where they met the crew and wandered through the shop with their jaws open.  I also took them to Discount Electronics to see the mural I worked on, as well as stopping off at the OC inspired Whole Foods at Sixth and Lamar.  When the skies turned dark, we headed down to the Congress Bridge and saw the bats take flight among the rest of the tourists in town.

picture from the Bats of Austin website