Downtown Austin Photo Scavenger Hunt

I love weekends - I get to focus all of my attention on cleaning the house, sleeping in, cooking complicated meals, planning the grocery list, writing a bit, riding my bike - the possibilities in a weekend are infinite.  And yes, I like a clean house enough to merit chore completion a high point. 

On Saturday, though, Lennon and I went out for our friend Katie's twenty-sixth birthday.  It was a surprise photo scavenger hunt and night out downtown, planned mostly by her room mate, Jo.

I also love any excuse to wear a party dress.  For a downtown photo scavenger hunt, flats were definitely a neccesity!

Dress: French Connection

Tights: Target

Shoes: ??? I don't even remember buying them!

Necklace: Etsy

It ended up being chilly so I wore a black cardigan over this, but it still equaled the perfect transitional outfit for going from dumpster diving to the dance floor :)

This is my team for the scavenger hunt on top of The Blind Pig Pub.  We never did come up with a name... but this photo was for "entire team on a roof top."  The bar tender was also awesome - he made everyone cheap drinks for the item "chugging contest with a stranger," and acted as our photographer for several shots, including "entire team with a stranger mooning all."  Check and check.

This adorable bulldog helped us out for "Shake hands with a stranger's dog."

"Entire team doing a chorus line with a stranger."  I think we should have gotten bonus because we got two strangers. 

The other team was a bit more coordinated than we were.  Katie, the birthday girl, is on the far right.  And as seen in pictures on previous posts, Lennon's legs look freakishly long.

"Entire team in the back of a truck."  We couldn't find a person with their truck, so our first inclination was to run to the fire station to get a picture there.  A very, very cute fireman took our picture in and around the truck's cab (there's a LOT of buttons in there!), but we were worried Jo wouldn't count it, so we interrupted traffic to jump out of our car and climb into the back of this unattended pick up.  Mara set the camera on top of her car and we jumped in and out very quickly.

Again, the other team totally beat us in style points on this picture - they got in the back of a beer truck.

"Entire team with a food vendor."  The other team copied us and got the same shot.  It's a tight squeeze in there between the grill and the wall.  Other items on the scavenger list included, "high five a homeless person," "one team member in a dumpster," and "one team member in a porta potty."  It's too bad EVERY PORTA POTTY downtown is padlocked.  The only one we found open was on the back of a truck trailer - bonus points to Courtney for running out of our car (stopped at a red light), climbing onto the trailer, and posing in the potty for a picture before the light turned green.  That's dedication.

Katie and Jo after the scavenger hunt.  I'm convinced our team won since theirs failed to put their whole team on a rooftop, and just made Lennon climb city hall.  We all had dinner at this inexpensive and delicious Indian restaurant - Tarka Indian Kitchen, and then hit Sixth Street.  Being a collective beer fan club, we spent most of our time in The Ginger Man which could rival the Flying Saucer on beer selection.  We then spent all of ten minutes in Six Lounge, and ended the night at Qua, which, when I don't think about the $20 credit card minimum I didn't know about until after I'd received one drink, was awesome because there were live sharks under the dance floor.  Being an aquarium fanatic and a dancing enthusiast, I was in Heaven.

Lunch Breaks, Toboggans, and Chocolate Stouts

Today I ran home from work for lunch and to snap some pictures of my outfit.  I'd spent the morning trying to rectify a computer server error on the membership database on my company laptop.  Huh?  Yeah, exactly.  And what a naughty professional I am - two of my tattoos are out for the world to see!

My male roommates have become increasingly curious about the world of fashion blogging, and while they won't admit it, have demonstrated their curiosity by participating in my photo shoots recently.  Eirik contributed this lovely, woolly toboggan hat.  He has quite the hat collection.

It's convenient to take photos on a whim when both of my roommates work from home, (unless you discount when Eirik is traveling for a performance.)

Hat: Eirik's

Jacket: BB Dakota, on sale at this wonderful boutique in Little Rock, Beyond Cotton

T-shirt: Target

Tank top: Target (and it matches my blog background!)

Jeans: Citizens of Humanity (my present to myself when I graduated with my masters)

Flats: Target (ok, I see the pattern)

Necklace: Ten Thousand Villages, Little Rock (but there's one in Austin)

Tonight was my third night in a row at the Flying Saucer.  The doorman recognized me - time for a venue change!  I went Monday during the day for wireless internet to complete a report because my windowless office is less than welcoming, then Tuesday night because Lennon confused his days of the week, since we were actually invited out Wednesday, (but that's ok, we stayed for trivia and JB and Lauren joined us), which meant we were here, again, and these two beers were mine.  Goodness.  I got to take the glass on the left home since it was brewery night.  You know I love my glassware!

Continuing my record, here are the beers I sampled this evening:

1) Two Below by New Belgium (draught), which was the fire sale, and comes from an awesome wind powered brewery in Colorado that I want to visit
2) Anderson Valley Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout (draught) - it didn't taste like oatmeal, but for being scared of stouts because I hate Guiness, this was delicious

3) Brooklyn Chocolate Stout, the brewery night special (which they didn't give me credit for on my record and needs to be fixed - I'm at six not five!)

Two stouts & an ale in one night + lettuce for dinner = Lennon drives home, and I can't do a blog post till late.  So tired!

Four Exciting Things & One Super Exciting One: The Slam is Back!

 Exciting Thing # 1

Tieka, from the incredibly beautiful blog Selective Potential, had the brilliant idea to start a feature called "The Man Behind The Camera."  Being a night owl, I caught her post calling for submissions quite quickly, and sent in all the props I have for my lovely photographer, Lennon, who I usually turn the camera on after our photo shoots to even things out.  He made it into her first round of featured photographers, (she's going to make it a regular feature, so heads up if you have a special someone taking pictures for you).  Lennon is a tall bugger, even in high heels I barely come up to his chin - one more reason I find him adorable.  Although, his light catching ears are still my favorite feature :)

Exciting Thing # 2

Again, Amy at Ha ha.  Wait.  What? is far too kind, and shares all of the awards she racks up (and deserves) with me.  I can't tell you how much they make me smile - I may need to provide photographic evidence!

This award didn't come with any rules, but I want to pass them both along to a sampling of the blogs that post frequently and always catch my eye when they do:

Miss Vintage Vixen

Bella Vogue

Kookulai

Lauren Elizabeth

Little Reminders of Love

Sara-Jane

Texas Hearts

Is that too many?  One more!  The wild card choice - my friend, Ben - who won some type of genius-grant-type-thing to go study martial arts in Thailand.  He blogged while there and it was GREAT, but then got injured, which is not great.  I think he needs to keep writing, even state side.  As motivation for one of my favorite poets and neatest (yes, neatest) people I know, these awards also go to you, Ben:

Talking With Your Fists

Exciting Thing #3

 

I stayed up till 3AM the other night reading HTML and blog tutorials and completely revamped my page.  It is now three columns, has a nifty navigation bar, (not all of the buttons lead anywhere... yet), my favorite insect flanking all of the titles, no "blogspot" banner on top, has a pretty background, (I love orange), a centered banner, (what a headache to figure out!), and the middle column is wide enough for my pictures, (another huge headache).  But I'm done, and I'm so proud, because I am so not techy!

Also, just a reminder to some readers, if you haven't updated your links or feed readers yet, I am no longer a .blogspot address, but got a domain, so the new(ish) URL is:

www.dishevelledstars.com 

Exciting Thing #4

 

I finally joined the Flying Saucher's UFO club!  My friend JB joined the "ring of honor" not long ago, and being a frequent customer at the Saucer, it seemed high time to give myself a goal in going.  I really like craft beers, and I got Lennon a book on home brewing for Christmas, so we've cleaned out our under-stairs closet to get it ready to try our first batch.  One of our favorite places in Little Rock was Vino's Brew Pub, and we talk about the possibility of having our own brewery/pub/venue, some day in the distant future.

Tonight was trivia night at the Saucer, and I casualed-it-up by reverting back to my blue jean habits.  Team Lumberjzack totally lost - but with some polish we'll fare better next time!  The Razorback basketball team also lost to UT while I was there, so double boo.  

Jeans: Sevens from Buffalo Exchange

Shirt: Target

Cardigan: Target

Shoes: Sperry's Top Siders

I want to start documenting (for my own recollection) the beers that I try each time I go, so thus far, I've had:

1) Shiner Bock (draught) - one of my favorites, and a Texas original.

2) Deschutes Green Lakes Organic Ale (draught)

3) Spaten Franziskaner Dunkel Weisse (draught)

Exciting Thing # 5

The new season of the Austin Poetry Slam kicks off tomorrow night!  It'll be every Wednesday at 8pm, and for the kick-off, my roommate Eirik, otherwise known as Big Poppa E, will be hosting.  It's only $5 at the Independent.  I'll be there after my guitar class ends, and if you're lucky, you can see both Eirik and our other room mate - Lennon - in all of their glorious (??) antics.  See evidence below:

Happy New Year + Blue Astronomical Anomalies

To everyone: readers, drifters, subscribers, passers-by: Happy New Year!  I hope 2010 is joyful, creative, eventful, productive, and pleasurable for all.

And tonight is special because it's a blue moon, the first since 1990 and the last until 2029.  To celebrate, I recommend having some of my favorite orange juice, I mean, wheat beer: Blue Moon.  It's much better than champagne, swear.  It's also a good kick off for one of my new year's resolutions: earn a plate at the Flying Saucer for trying every beer they stock.  It's going to be tough, but I'm a trooper, a pint size one.  (ha.)

Be safe, wear something sparkly, and make sure you get to sleep in tomorrow!  I'm going low key this year, as a favor to my pocket book, but by goodness there will be beer and wine and shiny shirts.


firework photo credit: deviant art