My best friend came into town this weekend and we decided to go somewhere special. Last time she was here we did some shopping and grabbed some Chai from a little tea room. Going over there menu we saw a pretty neat brunch menu that we wanted to check out. So when looking fora place to kick back and celebrate her birthday in more girlie style we picked The Steeping Room.

It turned out to be a little more fun, down to earth and delicious then girlie - but wow!

I know… All us tried and true Austinites, those “Keeping it Weird” are suppose to hate “The Domain”. I would like to but there are a few problems. I really like the jean store in there and, well, the Apple Store is pretty sacred. So I made exceptions for those places.

This weekend, however, I ended up doing brunch there. Looking at the prices it seemed a tad out of my general price range. Nine-ish bucks for french toast seemed a lot, so do did close to $3.00 for a single scone. But it was a special occasion and I figured I would just roll with it.

Once the food arrived and I totally got over myself. That scone? That single scone might have been the best tasting food I have had in ages. It had multiple flavors and smelled so good that I would buy that perfume if they ever offered it. It had chunks of sweet ginger in it, all the spices that seem to occur specifically for Christmas and was exactly sweet enough. Ok, note to self, if breakfast had one of these in it each day, I’d never skip it again.

The french toast – was chai flavored on challah bread and was delicious. Slices of fresh pear, green apple, blueberries, strawberries and kiwi accompanied the toast which didn’t need the maple syrup. I used it anyway though. My brunch mates’ dishes had them making yum yum noises too.

So, the food is terrific. However, that wasn’t even the best part. The owner is the best part. We had questions on the teas. I mean, what made a tea “tippy” and what did “tippy” taste like? It was our first real visit there and we had so many choices that we appreciated having a little direction. She was the sommelier of teas. I bet there is a special term for that but I have no idea what it might be. After all the attention, amazingly great food and information suddenly the price didn’t seem all that high.

We asked if she was considering doing a tea sampler or something similar and there is a possible food/tea pairing menu in the future. In the meantime she told us Tuesday nights there were little classes on teas. I am so entirely going to go to as many of those as I can manage.

After that we decided to get some tea to take home. We were faced with about a hundred choices. Fortunately, their amazing service stepped up again and the guy running the front registere walked us through picking. He asked great questions, found out what we liked and didn’t and made suggestions that were spot on.

I can’t wait to go back.

I have a confession. Up until this weekend I had never been to La Zona Rosa. I have a follow up; I have also never seen a Henry Rollins show.

Both of these things have now been remedied and all I have to say is:

Wow

Seriously, having not ever seen a full show I really didn’t understand what I was in for. I thought this would be 90 minutes of some angry guy being funny. I was so wrong. He was almost sweet, definitely brilliant and outrageously funny while being thoughtful. He is somewhat of a contradiction.

He began his non-stop monologue by discussing the recent Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates. I figured I was in for some serious bashing and didn’t get it. He did proclaim a preference but made several points – good and bad for both parties. The audience had to think. We laughed ourselves silly but we had to think.

President Bush ended up on the receiving end of what can only be called a Southern Stealth Insult. Rollins exclaimed that the president was his English teacher, that they way he put words together was incomparable. Every step of the way he was saying something that should be good while grinding Bush’s poor verbal skills into the dirt. It was masterful.

A great portion of the show dealt with him visiting other countries. He spoke at length about the people and places he had been. He went out in the streets and met normal people doing normal things. By bringing them to life so perfectly he managed to bring home the point that the war was killing people. Not killing horrible evil non-beings, but people, just like us. If there was one central theme for the night’s show it would be that war was a terrible, bad, awful thing and we should stop it.

He discussed his projects, all of which seem to be on a global scale and talked about a world that my limited experience doesn’t quite let me understand – yet. But now I have a lot more incentive to go exploring and learning.

The downer was the venue – sorta. La Zona Rosa is overall a pretty nice little place. They were organized and friendly and things were handled quite well. The downfall was the seating. We were in tiny little chairs that were so close to each other that you could feel the knees of the person behind you. Normally, this wouldn’t be so much of an issue but Rollins show is long. Really long, just over three hours and entertaining in a way that the time would not be noticeable except that the chairs were so awful. People basically sprang from the chairs and bolted for the doors the moment the show was over. I can guaranty that all of those people would have stayed for another few hours to listen to Rollins talk but were all glad to be off those seats

When Rollins comes back to town I will be one of the first people trying to get tickets and will not miss another chance to see him. I can’t wait to read his books and watch his other spoken word performances. I will also make an effort to hit more shows at La Zona Rosa. As a rule most down town venues are chaotic, dirty places and this one was pretty great on those counts.

Of course, it is possible that Rollins makes any place seem great.

I love my iPhone. I hadn’t expected to adore it quite so much but there ya go. It has quickly become one of those things that I can’t figure out how I ever lived without. The secret to my adoration is the App Store. I know that you can jailbreak it and put all sorts of stuff on it but right now the App Store is enough.

The App Store is the paradise of niche software. For example: I have a thyroid issue and debilitating migraines. My neurologist always wants to know certain things in regards to the migraines. Before my last migraine, what did I eat, where was I on my cycle, how many hours of sleep did I get the night before, when was the last time I had sex, did I have my meds and my vitamins, how much stress was I under at work? They may seem like odd questions but I understand why any and all of that data is important. The kicker is that I don’t keep track of that each and every day. So I seldom have an answer.

I tried for years to keep track of it all in a little notebook and that worked for a while but became so difficult that I stopped. Enter the App Store…

With the ridiculous name of Lady Biz I found an answer. I believe the app was originally created to help women who were trying to get pregnant which wasn’t my goal but a lot of the information would be perfect. The kicker was it is a bit pricey and didn’t have a few things I needed. So I took a chance and wrote the developer. He answered quickly with the plans for the next release and asked for input for how to make it more useful.

We wrote back and forth about what would make my life simpler and be useful for me, and he is implementing those changes. I love the app and I love the changes he is making specifically in regards to items I want to see.

Talk about eye opening, I wrote to several of the other developers, commented on their app, told them what I liked and what I would love to have included. In each case they wrote me back quickly, discussed the ideas and overall have implemented large parts of them. Unless you are a developer, have one in the family or have a ton of cash – this is as close to custom software as you could want.

The App Store really does allow a quick and casual interaction with people that make the software and that sorta rocks.

You know all the stereotypes of Texans are not always unwarranted when this happens:

“The Harrold Independent School District in rural Texas has given the go-ahead to teachers who wish to carry firearms in school, though they will need to get crisis training, certification to carry a concealed weapon as well as permission from the district. “We have a lock-down situation, we have cameras, but the question we had to answer is, ‘What if somebody gets in?…It’s just common sense,” explained Superintendent David Thweatt.”

The community is supporting the plan as well, citing the nearness of the highway and the thirty mile distance to the sheriff’s office as reasons why this is an important step for the security of the children.

Box office is back at the app store.

I have a super power. Notice I didn’t say that I am a super hero. That would take up too much time, and I have things to do. Mostly, surf the web, catch movies, fill up on podcasts and then there is that whole work and basic life maintenance.

Back to my super power, basically I have one of the tightest, most tuned ability to suspend my sense of disbelief. It may not sound like much but it is so much more useful in real life than say - flying.

No really, think about the ten last ridiculous things your boss asked of you. Now imagine being able to entertain the thought that they are making sense on some level, without having to accept it as being valid. I am sure I saved my tummy all sorts of ulcer activity over my career.

Being a giant media slut I am always at the movies, reading, gaming, listening to podcasts, and, when lucky, seeing theater. So naturally being able to be caught fully in any story is important. Overall, it is pretty imperative to my way of life. Summer movies always push my power to crazy limits.

This year it failed me entirely, in a great big sad way.

I started the season off strong: Iron Man was genius. I even liked Speed Racer, some how. Then the gauntlet: Indian Jones, Sex and the City, Zohan (shudder), The Hulk, Get Smart. I managed to find something good about all of them. Since I love musicals I saw Mama Mia! twice and adored every second, save that one bad, bad song by Pierce Brosnan. That one hurt a little as I have always adored him and maybe that was where the cracks started. Although, the first shot was probably the butt catching of fish in Zohan. Yes… I will blame that instead of my beloved Remington Steele.

Hellboy II didn’t quite cut it but I just dug down deep and managed to enjoy “the pretty” and only left the theater feeling a teeny bit empty, wishing dearly that they had included a plot.

Fortunately, The Dark Knight came in to fortify me. Not only was it a wonderful super hero movie, it was a damn fine film. Plot, character, deep meaningful themes, assuming you wanted to think that hard. Actually, I really liked that bit. I could sit down and think hard, wonder and feel a little too. That is really what story telling is all about.

And then the end. All I can say in my defense is that it SHOULD have been great. It SHOULD have been astounding. But no… it was a great big pile of poo, probably steaming. The Mummy:Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

How could that get screwed up? Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, Russell Wong and Brendan Fraser - this should have been brilliant. It should have been a no brainer, and it was but not in a good way. More of a “if I had a lobotomy” way. They even took off yummy Brendan’s shirt which I really appreciated.

But it wasn’t quite enough. Right about the point when we got to:

Oooh Yetis, Yay!!!!! Big furry CGI things that aren’t really here and therefore we will all look in slightly different directions, “We are good , they are bad - kill them”….

and they did…

there was a slight popping sound in the back of my brain. I briefly considered smashing my head into a theater seat. Unconsciousness seemed the best route. At minimum a concussion might make it less horrific. However, the rows are too far apart at my favorite theater for that to be practical. Fortunately, the Alamo serves alcohol and ice cream.

My best suggestion is to go to watch the trailer over and over instead. It is pretty terrific. For now, I am taking a week away from the theater to recuperate and heal in my DVR fortress. Lost, Burn Notice, Flashpoint, Swingtown, House, and the rest of my friends will help me mend. After all, I am only part way through the summer movies.