Chuy's Hula Hut

On the weekends, we're always looking to find some nice, new restaurant that we've never been to before. We get lots of suggestions from our colleagues at work. We have yet to try the restaurant owned by Sandra Bullock (Bess Bistro), but we'll get around to it eventually.

One restaurant that seems to come up a lot, and seems to generate a lot of buzz on the internet, is a place called "Chuy's Hula Hut." It's situated on the banks of Lake Austin, and they specialize in what they call "Mexonesian" food. It's a mix of Mexican and Polynesian food, and the place is decorated like a Hawaiian restaurant.

From what I had read, it normally takes around 2 hours to get a table here, so we arrived at 3:30pm on Sunday, assuming we'd have to wait a while to get a seat. My first impression of the restaurant and the surrounding area (and I hate sounding like a disillusioned Californian)was "Meh. I guess this is the Austin version of Shoreline Village in Long Beach." Instead of various restaurants by the beach, you had 3 restaurants by the lake.

The restaurant was busy, and parking wasn't particularly easy either. Our wait was only about 20 minutes, though. They sat us outside, which was fine, since we wanted a view of the lake. Chips and salsa were self serve, which I liked, because Mexican restaurants always seem to give you too little salsa, and you always have to ask for more. The only problem, though, was that the salsa was sitting outside in a container under the direct sunlight. Who knows how long it had been sitting out. I had premonitions of being sick by the end of the day (which came to fruition, by the way.)

So, I ordered BBQ chicken tacos and Christy ordered shrimp quesadillas. Christy immediately disliked the taste of the shrimp, and told the waiter. The waiter pointed out that seafood in Texas isn't exactly fresh. So she changed her order to pulled pork tacos, which she liked. The BBQ chicken tacos that I had tasted okay, but once I got home I had serious stomach pain for the rest of the night. I assume it was probably the stagnant salsa.

I have to say, I just didn't see the allure of Hula Hut. Was it the view of the lake that everybody likes? Is that why people wait 2 hours for a seat? Personally, the best Mexican food I've had in Austin has been in our small little Manor suburb, at a place called "Ramos Restaurant." It has no scenery or ambiance whatsoever, but the food is good.

We probably won't go back to Hula Hut again. There are better places in Austin with less crowds. If we feel like good BBQ, we go to Rudy's. If we feel like good Chinese food, we go to Pei Wei. For Italian food, Buca di Beppo is pretty good, and they are always giving out $10 off coupons. And for Mexican food, we'll stick to Manor.

Pink Floyd Reunite (sort of)

As a fan of all things Pink Floyd, it totally surprised me this morning when I was looking at Roger Waters facebook page, and seeing pictures of him and David Gilmour playing a show together. Apparantley it was a one-off charity gig in England to raise money for Palestinian refugees. These guys aren't exactly friends, and they've had a feud going on now since around 1986. Pink Floyd reunited once in 2005 for the "Live 8" show, but after that it seemed like things just went sour again. David Gilmour had said to the press that, although he enjoyed the performance, it was the rehearsels that made him realize he didn't want to get back together with Waters. I'm assuming Waters was starting to act like an egotistical control freak again.

The show this past weekend wasn't a full fledged reunion. Drummer Nick Mason wasn't there, and keyboardist Richard Wright died a couple of years ago. But, in many peoples opinion (including mine), a Pink Floyd reunion really only needs Gilmour and Waters.

Later this year, I'll be travelling to Dallas to see Roger Waters perform "The Wall" live. It's something I'm really looking forward to, and I feel the only way it could be made better is if Gilmour joined him on this tour. Without him, several of the songs will have to be sung by other people, as will the classic guitar solos. I've seen Roger Waters in concert a few times before, and he's never had a guitarist capable of playing at the same level as Gilmour. Unless he gets Jeff Beck or Eric Clapton, it's probably just not possible.

One can only hope that this brief reunion will result in more appearances together, if not "The Wall" shows, maybe at least something down the line. They are both pretty old guys now (each in his early 60's, so time is ticking away.) Do they really want "The Division Bell" to be the final Pink Floyd record released to the world, or do they have one more masterpiece left in them?

(Photo: David Gilmour (left) and Roger Waters (right) performing together again in 2010.)

The Decline of Good Movies

We took Kyle to see his first movie recently, "Toy Story 3", and was quite surprised when he didn't run around and go crazy. He sat through the entire movie, wide-eyed, and almost never saying a word.

Wow, I thought to myself. Now that Kyle can finally sit through a movie, maybe we can take him to other movies!

The only problem is...what movie? This summer has got to be the worst summer for movies that I can remember. For kids and adults alike. For every good movie like "Toy Story 3", there is complete dreck like "Marmaduke."

What has this summer offered so far?

The Prince of Persia ----another video game made into a movie? Boring.
The Last Airbender ---when was the last time M. Night Shyamalan made anything good?
Sex and the City 2 ----even my wife doesn't want to see this.
Jonah Hex --- more comic book movies from comic books I've never heard of
The A Team --- A bad TV show that only can only make for a bad movie.
The Karate Kid ---- Did this really need to be remade, and with that annoying Will Smith kid?
Knight and Day --- Tom Cruise as action hero just doesn't work for me.
Robin Hood --- looked promising at first until the reviews came in, and the PG-13 rating.
Grown Ups ---- Adam Sandler and Rob Schneider, enough reason not to see it.

Even movies that I didn't catch in the theater and watched on pay per view have been disappointing. I just saw "The Wolfman" and it nearly put me to sleep. Same goes for the latest George Romero zombie movie "Survival of the Dead." What is going on??

It seems the only movie left that might save the summer from being a total washout, other than "Toy Story 3", is the Chris Nolan movie "Inception." Nolan, the director of "The Dark Knight" hasn't had a bad movie yet, so this seems promising.

As I had mentioned before, I have some pretty fond memories of my mom taking me to the movies every Sunday afternoon when I was a kid. Yeah, we saw a lot of junk, but we saw a lot of really good stuff too. It would be nice to continue that tradition with my kids (although with today's ticket prices, that's not likely), but when the movies coming out are like this, I think it's better to just stay home.

(Picture: "Toy Story 3", the one good movie (so far) of the summer.)

The Oil Hits Texas

"There is no one who wants this over more than I do. I would like my life back."
-BP CEO Tony Hayward, who also attended a yacht race in the Isle of Wight during this oil crisis.


So, BP has gone and done it now. They have messed with Texas. Tar balls have begun to show up on the beaches at Galveston, and the oil keeps coming. Here we are, almost three months later, and the oil keeps flowing. The Exxon Valdez disaster was nothing compared to this. We already surpassed that amount of oil in just two weeks.

Of course, I know nothing about how to contain an oil spill, but I am continually dumbfounded when I watch the CNN live feed of the oil spewing out into the gulf, and nobody can do anything about it. Why do we have the technology to build such equipment to get the oil, but we don't have the technology to stop it? I have a feeling that when it comes to spending money to obtain oil, there is no limit, but to protect the environment when an accident happens, suddenly there is nothing anybody can do.

I think if BP had been honest and forthcoming about everything that's going on, and the people in charge acted a little more compassionate, there wouldn't be this utter hatred of them that Americans have right now for this company. They constantly try to downplay the effect of the spill, at first claiming that only "5,000" barrels a day are spilling into the ocean, when in actuality it's more like 50 or 60 thousand. They have referred to the damage in the ocean as "tiny." They refuse to talk to CNN, or even let reporters take pictures of animals covered in oil.

Then you've got the CEO taking a vacation to watch a yacht race in England. What the hell? You know, I took a vacation recently, after working a FREAKIN' YEAR to earn it. And this guy wants to take a vacation during the biggest oil crisis in history? The way I (and most people) see it is...you don't get a vacation until every last drop of oil is cleaned up. Bastard.

BP should look to Toyota for how to handle a crisis. Toyota is now admitting to everything they have done wrong and trying desperately to correct it. They have spent millions, if not billions, on fixing cars that probably don't even have anything wrong with them. Owning a Toyota myself, I have received numerous letters from them updating me on which cars are being recalled and why. Will I buy another Toyota? I don't know, but I don't feel the hatred for the company like I do with BP.

I really hope that when we buy our next car, the prices for hybrids come down. I'd buy one in an instant. Oil dependency has got to stop.

A Few More Pictures from the Trip

(Picture 1: Sara and Kyle pose at the Florida state line. Picture 2. Breakfast at the Marriott in New Orleans. It was a buffet-style breakfast that we had paid for in advance with the cost of our room. Had we not paid in advance, this simple breakfast would have cost us $54. Yes, $54 for eggs, cereal, and waffles. Picture 3: Sara and Kyle getting ready to go swimming. Picture 4: The swimming pool at our hotel in Orlando. This was very nice, and with a little waterslide too. Picture 5: The green swimming pool at a "Days Inn" motel that we stopped at along the way. We had a very, very bad experience with Days Inn. The water coming out of the faucets was brown and dirty, the bedsheets were not clean, there was exposed wiring on the walls, so we had to leave the hotel. I have since wrote an email to their customer service department about their shoddy motel. Supposedly, the general manager is going to call me before June 18 to resolve my complaint. What is he going to do? Offer me another night at his terrible motel?)

Disney World, Florida

I think that Disneyland and Disney World are great places to take the kids. Just watching their faces fill with wonder on each ride is something every parent should see. To them, it's a dream world come true.

For parents, though, it's a lesson in shock and awe about capitalism. There are four major theme parks in Disney World: 1. The Magic Kingdom, which is essentially Disneyland. 2. Epcot. 3. Hollywood Studios, and 4. Animal Kingdom. Each parks costs $79 (plus tax) for adults, and $69 for kids 3 to 10 years old. We managed to pass Kyle off as being two years old this time, but that won't work again the next time we decide to go. If we decided to see all 4 parks the next time we visit Orlando, it would cost us around $1264. Yes, over a grand just for some Disney magic. Then you have the $14 for parking, and the overpriced restaurants ($2.50 for a small bottle of water).

This year, we were able to see two parks (Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios) for only $330. We were able to get a big discount attending one of those horrendous "timeshare" seminars. Holiday Inn was promoting time share condos in Orlando, and we spent about 2 hours being pressured by salesmen trying to get us to buy property. They wanted to sell us a 35 thousand dollar timeshare, with $6,000 down, and payments of $600 a month, with 16% interest. Ha! Like we would ever do that. Basically, we just suffered through it to get the discounted Disney tickets, like most everyone else there (and there were a lot of families there).

So this is what we have to resort to now to take our families to see Mickey Mouse without having to take out a second mortgage on our house.

The Magic Kingdom park was the most fun. It has the most rides and the kids loved it the most. It's the only park that can (kind of) justify its high price. Disney's Hollywood Studios was not nearly as good, or as big. If Magic Kingdom is $79, this one should be about $49 in my opinion. It has mostly shows, and only a few rides, including a very disappointing "backlot tram tour" that paled in comparison to Universal Studios.

We may go back again in the future. I wouldn't mind seeing the Animal Kingdom park, and maybe we'll also see Universal Orlando (we skipped it this time out). But, unless we go to another time share seminar, we're going to need a big tax refund again.

New Orleans

We just got back from our vacation to New Orleans and Orlando, Florida. We made the decision to go to New Orleans before the big oil spill, and everything in the city seemed to be business as usual. We only had a day to spend there, so we wanted to try to see as much as possible. Everything started out great, and it wasn't until near the end of the day that things started to go a little sour.

We walked along Decatur and Borboun Street, located in the French Quarter, and marvelled at the architecture of the buildings. Austin is considered the "Live Music Capital of the World", but just walking down Borboun Street in New Orleans, that seemed like a title that should go to them, as pretty much every corner was bustling with live music. There were also many "adult" clubs on the street, and both Christy and I wished we had a babysitter so we could fully enjoy our time there.

By dinner time, though, I began to become suddenly and unexpectedly ill. The city had a smell to it that reminded me of Taiwan. The odors began to get to me. Once we got to "Bubba Gump's" seafood restaurant, I was in the bathroom violently throwing up, and I couldn't eat a thing for the rest of the night. By morning, I was fine. Christy thought I might of had sun stroke, which was possible, since we spent most of the day walking in the intense heat. Whatever it was, it came and went, and once we left New Orleans, I felt fine for the remainder of the trip.

(Pictures: 1. A typical New Orleans building 2. A bar offering "huge ass beers". 3. Sara taking a water break. 4. A horse walks along a picturesque street (horse rides were $75 for a 30 minute ride, btw). 5. A riverboat that will take you out to the Oil Expedition)