The County Line BBQ

If there's one thing Texas is famous for, other than guns and cowboys, it's the bar-b-que. We've now been to three relatively famous BBQ chains here in Austin, and I have to say that after sampling "Rudy's" and "The Salt Lick", my new favorite is "The County Line."

I usually try the beef brisket, and Christy gets ribs. I'm not a big fan of ribs, but Christy, being Taiwanese, likes to get food that reminds her of the old night markets back home. I guess that ribs somehow reminds her of jee peegoo on a stick, so she loves it.

The beef brisket at the County Line is the best I've had yet. Very moist and juicy, unlike Rudy's, which can sometimes be dry. The restaurant itself has some nice scenery (the one we went to was on top of a hill overlooking Austin), and you have actual tables, instead of the typical long benches that you get in BBQ restaurants. The side dishes are also better as well. Also, just like "The Salt Lick", they have a band playing live music outside. They've also got a talking cow, which the kids found amusing.

We don't eat at BBQ restaurants very often. It's a little bit pricey, and beef isn't particularly good for you. But, not trying the BBQ in Texas is like going to China and not eating Chinese food.

(Pictures: 1. The County Line. 2. The talking cow. 3. Christy and the kids explore the patio. There wasn't anyone sitting out there because it was too hot. 4. The BBQ band begins to play. 5. The view from the patio.)

The Circus Comes to Austin

Here are just some of the pictures we took on Saturday night from the Ringling Brothers Circus here in Austin.

Overall, I enjoyed it more than the Elmo show that I took the kids to a while back. The Elmo show bored the hell out of me. This was more entertaining. It had some moments that fell flat, though: the clowns were not very interesting, the guy blowing bubbles was dull, and there was some comedy sketch with a girl on a trapeze that went nowhere. Still, the tigers, elephants, and the 7 motorcycles riding in the dome were pretty cool.

Sara and Kyle, as usual, started to lose interest around the 90 minute mark and started playing with the kids in the seats behind us.

(Pictures: 1. Arriving at the Circus. 2. The tigers contemplate eating their trainer. 3. Elephant tricks. Did any of the elephants go crazy during this performance and attack the audience? Unfortunately, no. 4. Kyle and Sara, looking at me instead of the show. 5. Circus performers.)

Austin Ice Cream Festival

On Saturday we went to the 3rd Annual Austin Ice Cream Festival. It sounded like a fun thing for the kids, although not necessarily for me. I don't really like these kinds of things. Too crowded, and too overpriced. Kids over 12 and adults had to pay $5 to get into the festival, and once inside, every single thing cost extra money. Petting zoo: $3. Pony rides: $5. Swing ride: $7. A single scoop of ice cream: $3. Parking: $7. To me, this kind of thing just isn't worth it. I'd rather go to Six Flags, pay one price, and be able to ride everything.

Also, for an Ice Cream Festival, it was surprising at how little ice cream there was. After walking around for a good 10 minutes, passing booths selling all kinds of junk and trinkets (and one booth was offering free fingerprinting for your kids), we finally saw three ice cream stands. There was one for "Austin Scoop", "Amy's Ice Cream" and "Dippin' Dots", and that was it, and they were located at the very back, with enormous lines for each one (even Dippin' Dots!)

I guess I wouldn't be quite so negative if it wasn't so damn hot. It's hard to enjoy any outdoor activity here in Austin when it's 105 degrees. I mean, why not have your watermelon, chocolate, and ice cream festivals when the weather is a little cooler? Why have them in the burning-hell days of summer?

This is my second summer in Austin and you'd think I would have learned my lesson by now. We've already had something like 55 days of over 100 degree temperatures here. From now on we're going to try to stick to indoor activities like museums (and next week we're going to the Circus.)

(Pictures: 1. Sara stands next to an empty ice cream truck. 2. The ice cream train, which also doesn't have ice cream. 3. Two dudes cruising the ice-cream scene. 4. Kyle finally gets to try some ice cream. 5. Sara and Kyle play with popsicle sticks, although I couldn't find popsicles for sale.)

Taiwan Typhoons

Having lived in Taiwan, I experienced a lot of typhoons. The island seemed to have about 3 or 4 of them a year. Most of them didn't really affect me that much, since I lived in the city, and not the countryside. I lived for 3 years in Hsinchu, and 1 year in Taichung. Hsinchu is surrounded by mountains, so it's pretty well-protected from any major typhoons. I remember numerous "typhoon days" where Christy and I didn't have to work. We would just stay home with the kids and watch the rain outside. Sometimes I'd think that the rain wasn't even that strong, and wonder why they needed to shut the entire city down. There's been rainy days here in Austin that are stronger than some of the Taiwan "typhoon days", but business goes on as usual.

Here in Texas, we have "hurricane days", but since I work at a hospital, I have to go to work no matter how bad the weather is outside. There would have to be a flooding and downed trees blocking the streets for me to be able to call out on a hurricane day. But since Austin is in central Texas, most hurricanes have weakened by the time they reach here.

The latest typhoon in Taiwan, "Typhoon Morakot" seems to be stronger than any I experienced when I was living there. Buildings are toppling over, and many have died. My mother and father in-law, who live in Ju-Shan (in the countryside) are both okay. My wife has been calling them daily. They have told her that the mudslides are a couple of towns away from where they live, but they've still been experiencing heavy rain.

It's good to see the Taiwanese people working together to help each other to find survivors that may be trapped in the mudslides. On the other end of the coin, though, it's not so good to see people cheering as buildings collapse into the flood waters. We watched on the news as a hotel fell amid cheering crowds outside. The hotel wasn't destroyed on purpose. It was owned by somebody, and a source of employment for many people. Would they have cheered if they worked there? Probably not.

(Picture: a Taiwan hotel collapses from Typhoon Morakot)

The University of Texas

Most of the museums we've visited lately (including the LBJ and Blanton) are located on the University of Texas campus. One of my readers advised me to see the Harry Ransom Museum, also located on the campus. We tried to visit that one, but it was closed until September 8th.

Both Christy and I remarked just how huge the University of Texas campus is. It can almost be a small town on its own. There are restaurants, shops, museums, performance centers, and an enormous football stadium (where the Longhorns play). Christy also pointed out how clean it was too. I imagine compared to the Douliou University, it's quite different from what she's used to.

The University of Texas does have a bit of notorious history, though. It was here that, in 1966, Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the UT clock tower with a sniper rifle and killed 14 people. If there were any memorials to the victims, I couldn't find it.

(Pictures: 1. The UT campus. 2. Sara at the Harry Ransom Center (closed) 3. The family takes a break to pose. 4. Sara poses next to a statue outside the School of Business. 5. More Sara.)

LBJ Library and Museum

This weekend we visited the Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum here in Austin. At the time of our visit, they seemed to be redecorating the outside if the museum, so it wasn't that impressive to look at from the outside (see picture above.)

Inside was pretty nice, with lots of exhibits covering the entire life of LBJ. Pictures, news articles, books, letters, paintings, sculptures, videos, etc. There's even a talking LBJ wax figure on the fourth floor (see picture).

Much like the Nixon museum in California, the LBJ museum glosses over the most controversial part of his life, the Kennedy assassination. There are about 3 or 4 exhibits covering the assassination, but (naturally) it's all related to LBJ's ascension to the presidency.

LBJ's involvement in the assassination of Kennedy has been suspected by many. E. Howard Hunt (who worked in the CIA and also in Nixon's administration), on his deathbed, wrote down the names of the top people involved in Kennedy's assassination. The top name on his list was Lyndon Johnson, and underneath him were Cord Meyer, Bill Harvey, and David Morales (all CIA.) Was he lying? Who knows, but it does seem to make sense.

Here's just a small portion from the article "The Last Confession of E. Howard Hunt" by Erik Hedegaard, and published in Rolling Stone in 2007:

"E. Howard scribbled the initials "LBJ," standing for Kennedy's ambitious vice president, Lyndon Johnson. Under "LBJ," connected by a line, he wrote the name Cord Meyer. Meyer was a CIA agent whose wife had an affair with JFK; later she was murdered, a case that's never been solved. Next his father connected to Meyer's name the name Bill Harvey, another CIA agent; also connected to Meyer's name was the name David Morales, yet another CIA man and a well-known, particularly vicious black-op specialist. And then his father connected to Morales' name, with a line, the framed words "French Gunman Grassy Knoll."

Later that week, E. Howard also gave Saint two sheets of paper that contained a fuller narrative. It starts out with LBJ again, connecting him to Cord Meyer, then goes on: "Cord Meyer discusses a plot with [David Atlee] Phillips who brings in Wm. Harvey and Antonio Veciana. He meets with Oswald in Mexico City. . . . Then Veciana meets w/ Frank Sturgis in Miami and enlists David Morales in anticipation of killing JFK there. But LBJ changes itinerary to Dallas, citing personal reasons."

David Atlee Phillips, the CIA's Cuban operations chief in Miami at the time of JFK's death, knew E. Howard from the Guatemala-coup days. Veciana is a member of the Cuban exile community. Sturgis, like Saint's father, is supposed to have been one of the three tramps photographed in Dealey Plaza. Sturgis was also one of the Watergate plotters, and he is a man whom E. Howard, under oath, has repeatedly sworn to have not met until Watergate, so to Saint the mention of his name was big news.

In the next few paragraphs, E. Howard goes on to describe the extent of his own involvement. It revolves around a meeting he claims he attended, in 1963, with Morales and Sturgis. It takes place in a Miami hotel room. Here's what happens:
Morales leaves the room, at which point Sturgis makes reference to a "Big Event" and asks E. Howard, "Are you with us?"

E. Howard asks Sturgis what he's talking about.
Sturgis says, "Killing JFK."


So there you have it. Either Hunt is a complete liar, or LBJ could actually have been even more evil than Dubya.

To his credit, however, Johnson did sign the Medicare and Medicaid legislation, giving healthcare to millions of people in 1965. Perhaps he felt he had to do something good after what had happened just two years prior.

(Pictures: 1. The outside of the museum, still under construction. 2. The archives. 3. Sara poses in front of a painting of LBJ. 4. The talking wax figure of LBJ. 5. Portraits of other presidents. 6. The exhibit on the Kennedy assassination. 7. A painting depicting Kennedy's funeral)

New Car Blues

I hate buying a new car. I like owning a new car, but not buying one. Why? Because I hate dealing with those sleazy, greasy car-salesmen. I end up spending an entire day at the car dealership because I always end up going back and forth with these people, and when it's all over, I still feel like I got shafted in some way.

We bought a new car last weekend. My mom's 1999 Toyota Corolla was falling apart. Although it didn't have a huge amount of miles on it, it wasn't in the best condition. The car was also beginning to show signs of problems to come. The last straw came when I went to open the door, and the door handle literally broke off in my hand.

I checked the Blue Book value of the car, and in "Fair" condition, I should have expected to receive about $3200 for a trade-in. In poor condition, maybe $2700.

The car salesman at Austin Toyota offered me $1,000 for my mom's Corolla. A car that I paid $1500 to my brother for, thinking I was getting a good deal. (my brother was handling all my mom's financial business)

I was livid. There was no way in hell I was going to accept less than what I paid my brother for it. This was a Toyota Corolla after all. This is a good car with a very good reputation. The salesman came back again, now offering $1500. He kept telling me he "called his boss" and got this new offer.

You know, these car salesmen really need to stop with the "call my boss" routine. It's ridiculous. We've all seen "Fargo" so we know you're not really going to talk to your boss. Most likely you're going into another room to eat a donut or talk some gossip with co-workers. So please, give it up.

I rejected the $1500. Then he came back with $1750. I rejected that, too. I was almost about to leave. I told the salesman that the value of the car, according to Kelly's Blue Book, is at least $2700. He didn't believe it, so I told him to let me use a computer, which (surprisingly) he did. So I finally got him to raise my old car to $2500. This was maybe after about 5 hours of back and forth, back and forth, and test driving different cars. I accepted the last offer of $2500, and about $200 off the sticker price. This is where I think I got screwed, because I believe I could have gotten far more off the sticker price. The "owner" said that because of the car I was getting, a 2010 Corolla (yes, I like Corolla's), the most he could give me off the sticker price was $500. And since I was already getting more than my old car was worth (so he said), I got less off the sticker price. I probably could have gotten more, but I was too tired to continue haggling. The whole ordeal took about 8 hours.

So now we own a 2010 Toyota Corolla. Just a bare-bones version with no power windows or power locks (it does have A/C and a CD player, thankfully.) Had we gotten the power windows/doors, it would have been another $3,000, and we were already paying way too much just for the "unloaded" version.

Christy, of course, got a nice lesson in dealing with car salesmen in America. She told me it was quite different from Taiwan. In Taiwan, you tell them the price you want to pay, and that's what you pay. No hidden taxes or playing games with salesmen. It's all very simple. Here, it's quite different, and I'm glad it's something I only have to do about once a decade.

(picture: the new 2010 Toyota Corolla)