McDonald's leaves Iceland in the cold

As if their tanking currency wasn't bad enough, Iceland will no longer have any McDonald's after midnight tonight due to high imported food prices. Guess that means they're off Thomas Friedman's do-not-bomb list. Sorry, Björk!

New corporate identity

After nearly four years of being content with the Blogger default header, I decided to slap on a new logo today. I think it's just what this 'ol blog needs to attract the hearts and minds of the "now" generation.

Rolling out to Reimers Ranch

Kate's Aunt P.K. is in town this weekend, so we decided to take advantage of the perfect weather by going out to Milton Reimers Ranch Park.

Located on the Pedernales River in the far western reaches of Travis County, Reimers Ranch is well-known to rock-climbers and mountain bikers, but it has only been in the Travis County Parks system since 2006. This was the first time I'd been out there.

With the recent rains bringing the Hill Country back to life, our quick day trip was well worth the $8 admission. I think we'll bring a picnic next time. Here are a few amateur snapshots to give you a better idea of how bucolic things are right now.

The flowers are blooming...


...and the water is flowing.


The mission-style "village" on the bluff was actually the movie set of the 2004 version of The Alamo.


Not quite the Playboy Mansion grotto, but close.


The Pedernales heads toward Lake Travis under clear blue skies.

Hat Creek can't compete

I finally dropped by the newly opened Hat Creek Burger Company that recently took over the Arby’s at 5400 Burnet Rd. Though I still give Hat Creek high marks for saving the vintage Arby's cowboy hat sign, my overall verdict on their food is adequate at best.

I ordered the Big Hat Combo #1, which retails for $6.93, tax included. The double-pattied burger was unattractive despite the color contrast provided by green leaf lettuce and purple onion. More importantly, it was smallish for its price point. The coarsely ground, Premium Gold Angus beef patties had no real flavor other than that of black pepper. The vegetables and mustard couldn’t compensate, leaving a burger that was bland and lifeless.

On the plus side, the fries were quite good. Served shoestring-style with the skins on, they arrived in my car piping hot and golden brown. Maybe they could’ve been a little more crisp, but that’s a minor quibble. A not-so-minor quibble was that my 20-ounce cup of Diet Dr Pepper (you know, for my health) was mostly ice.

I don’t mind paying a bit more for to support a local chain that uses higher quality ingredients, but Hat Creek pales in comparison to P. Terry’s, which costs less and tastes better.

Changes ahead for Rapid Rewards

Southwest Airlines plans to unveil its retooled Rapid Rewards program late next year. While there’s no word yet on if you’ll be still able to get a free roundtrip ticket for 16 flights, the revamping of frequent flyer programs often means getting less than what you got before. Southwest is trying to make itself more attractive to highfalutin’ business travelers, so I imagine some sort of tiered awards system is inevitable.

One potential upside is that Southwest is looking into codesharing agreements with other airlines under the revised program. If you could earn credit toward international flights on Southwest, many business travelers would happily ditch American for Southwest once they cashed in their OneWorld miles.

Personally, I’d like to see a Southwest/JetBlue codeshare since most of my air travel these days involves intra-Texas hops on Southwest and Austin/Boston runs on JetBlue. I don’t think this will happen because Southwest and JetBlue are direct low-fare competitors, but with a baby on the way and a coterie of relatives in New England, I’m all about mileage maximization.

When SWAT came a-callin'

It's been a crazy day here in the soul-crushing, pedestrian-hostile North Dallas suburb of Addison. I got no sleep last night, which left me less than fully charged for a full slate of Texas HIV/STD Community Planning Group meetings.

Just as we were wrapping up, I checked the web to see what was going on back home and found out there was a SWAT team standoff on our block. I immediately called Kate and she rushed home from work only to find our street blocked off by an army of APD officers and vehicles.

Fortunately for everyone, the standoff (which, as it turned out, wasn't actually a standoff at all) ended peacefully and without injury around 5:30. The bomb squad truck drove away and Kate was allowed by the authorities to go home and use the bathroom. Good thing it didn't drag on any longer because denying a pregnant lady restroom rights could've easily spiraled into Dog Day Afternoon.

Heard it through the Grapevine

Here’s a bit of bad news for North Austin libation lovers - Austinist reports that Grapevine Market will close on Dec. 15.

While Grapevine’s (ahem) liquidation - which starts next week - may result in some good pre-holiday deals, I will sorely miss their comprehensive beer selection. It was a great place to pick up a decent wine on the way to a party when you didn’t have time to futz with Spec’s or Central Market. Of course, the fact that you could always get in and out of Grapevine quickly is almost certainly a large part of why they won’t be around in 2010.

It's a boy!

Kate and I found out the gender of our baby at last week's ultrasound. Having notified immediate family and friends, I can now say we are having a boy.

At our previous ultrasound, the technician said, "I think this might be a boy...no, wait, that's a finger." Kinda gave a whole new meaning to the term "prick-tease."

I would've been surprised - though not disappointed - if the baby was a girl, but I'm quite elated about the prospect of fathering a son. Although I know it won't necessarily make me a better dad, having some vague recollection of what it was like to be a boy can't hurt. I still act like a 12-year-old boy much of the time, too.

The other marriage penalty

The Oct. 2 New York Times ran an illuminating analysis that attempts to quantify the lifetime financial costs incurred by same-sex couples for living in a country that doesn't recognize their right to marry. Reporters Tara Siegel Bernard and Ron Lieber estimate gay couples could be paying anywhere from $28,595 to $211,993 more than financially similar straight couples.

Few will be surprised to learn that access to affordable health insurance is a big driver of this disparity. Most U.S. companies and governments - including the State of Texas - do not allow their employees to cover same-sex spouses as dependents under their group health plans. Even if a company offers domestic partner coverage, the federal tax code treats a same-sex partner's coverage as taxable income, so you can't use pretax dollars to pay the premiums.

Same-sex couples also get screwed on Social Security benefits, estate taxes, adoption costs, and pension plans that pay a survivor benefit to a heterosexual spouse but not a same-sex one. They cannot fund a non-working spouse's portion of a joint IRA and they wind up paying higher legal fees to codify rights that straight couples take for granted.

The one area where heterosexual couples might pay more is if both of them earn roughly the same amount, which could trigger the so-called "marriage penalty." However, this doesn't even come close to making up for all the ways our system cheats same-sex couples. Equal protection, anyone?

Hard times at Rhino Records

More bad news for the music industry. Variety reports long-heralded back catalog savior Rhino Records is laying off 30-40 people, citing "fundamental transformation of the physical new release and catalog business."

Over the years, Rhino reissues have become a dominant element of my music collection. From the Monkees reissues that helped launch that band's mid-80s critical and commercial revival to the thoughtfully packaged and annotated Nuggets box sets, there has always been a palpable sense of passion in Rhino's products.

Here's hoping there's still a sustainable place for eccentric music nuts in whatever emerges from the wreckage of the old guard.

No love, no gloves

Think long and hard before buying Isotoner gloves or Totes umbrellas this holiday season. I used to think Isotoners made a nice stocking stuffer gift, but after reading this story from CNN's Campbell Brown about how Totes/Isotoner fired a temp worker/new mother at their Cincinnati warehouse for taking “unauthorized” breaks to pump breast milk in the crapper, they can eat the bird.

Marshall, Marshall, Marshall!

Greetings from behind the Pine Curtain. I'm in Bill Moyers' hometown of Marshall, Texas getting ready for a tri-state summit tomorrow to discuss ways of addressing syphilis in the Ark-La-Tex region.

There's no easy way to get to Marshall from Austin. We didn't get on the road until 3pm and the drive took about five and a half hours. We had middling Tex-Mex at a place called The Jalapeño Tree and had to join a "club" to drink beer. I'll have to add "Jalapeño Tree Club" to my résumé when I get home tomorrow night.

Week in New England

Kate and I just returned from a week visiting family and friends in New England. It was nice to get away from the furnace and even better to arrive home to downpours.

We celebrated Kate's dad's 70th birthday last Sunday (which just so happened to be our first anniversary) in Rhode Island with 70 or so fellow revelers. His wife, Mary, catered the party. I enjoyed catching up with Kate's New England cousins and eating too much. It was the first of many gastronomic overindulgences on my part.

We went over to Cape Cod on Monday to visit Kate's stepmother, Phyllis, and her sister, Eloise. I'd never been to Cape Cod before, but I quickly got into the swing of things with a lobster roll and a dip in Nantucket Sound. Kate and Eloise trounced me at miniature golf on Tuesday at a near-mythic establishment called Steve & Sue's Par-Tee Freeze, but the vanilla and coffee soft-serve swirl made defeat go down a bit easier. We also partook of traditional ice cream at Four Seas, which is one of those institutions you must partake in if you care about ice cream and find yourself anywhere near Cape Cod during the summer months.

Still woozy from a morning of mini-golf, we drove back to Kate's hometown of Worcester to stay with Kate's mom and her stepdad, Michael, for the remainder of the week. Michael treated us to a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park on Wednesday night. It was a good one against the Baltimore Orioles, but the Sox prevailed with a three-run double by Victor Martinez in the seventh inning that led to a 7-5 win. While all this was going on, the couple in the seats next to us stood up with an officiant and got married. Hopefully the Red Sox will maintain their wild-card lead over the Texas Rangers or the happy couple's honeymoon will be flat-out scotched.

Once we settled in Worcester, the days became more languid. Despite losing an hour, I found myself getting tired uncharacteristically early and having uncharacteristically vivid dreams once I fell asleep. As Kate and I hiked in Wachussett Meadow on Thursday afternoon, you could feel the end of summer approach in the cool, crisp air.

By Friday, it was rainy and overcast, with daytime temps in the mid-50s. We warmed up with corned beef on bulky rolls, matzo ball soup and birch beer at Weintraub's Deli. You just can't get everyday Jewish deli comfort food like that in Austin.

Our flight back home on Saturday was non-eventful, but after a week in the remote parking lot at Austin-Bergstrom, my car wouldn't start. Fortunately, AMPCO dispatched someone to jump-start the car and that gave us enough juice to get home, unload the bags with the car running and go to Pep Boys for a new battery. Not the best way to conclude a vacation, but at least it wasn't the alternator.

7-Eleven wants virtual groupies

Hey, kids! 7-Eleven's Slurpee Battle of the Bands wants you to be a "virtual groupie."

Wouldn't such an exhortation skirt illegality if it was proffered to someone who hasn't reached the age of majority? Also, I'm pretty sure a "Slurpee" didn't denote frozen sugar water in the lively patois of the Butter Queen and her crew.

Elmo fights flu with PSAs

CNN reports that beloved Sesame Street character Elmo has joined the war against H1N1 flu. So has Gordon, but apparently he's no longer the stuff of sexy news pegs.

A previously developed PSA campaign encouraging kids to wash their hands and sneeze into their arm bends is being relaunched as part of the federal government's pandemic flu response. You can view the four TV spots at flu.gov. Now that Elmo is enlisted in the H1N1 battle and Cookie Monster is fighting obesity, I'm thinking Oscar would be a perfect spokesgrouch for a campaign against pubic lice.

"We are thrilled to partner with Elmo, Gordon, and Sesame Workshop again to emphasize the steps kids and their parents can take to stay happy and healthy this school year," says U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in a prepared statement.

Man or Muppet, we bureaucrats are always "thrilled to partner."

She's having a baby

Now that we've made it past the three-month mark, I guess it's high time Kate and I went wide with the news that we are expecting a child.

The above ultrasound was taken last week. Although we were able to see the baby moving around, the technician had a hard time coaxing it into all the necessary positions at 8am. We still don't know if we are having a boy or girl, but I'm pretty sure he or she won't be a morning person.

Kate is grateful to be done with the first trimester. Morning sickness and fatigue are never pleasant, especially in extreme drought conditions. Fortunately, these symptoms seem to be abating as she moves into the second trimester. I find it amazing that she didn't stay in bed for the entire month of July.

This baby of ours is due sometime in the latter half of February. Impending parenthood has us both vacillating between excitement, anticipation and anxiety, but one thing is certain: I couldn't be happier to be embarking on this ride alongside Kate.

Cholesterol, ho!

For me, the only thing better than a plate of shrimp is a plate of shrimp that never ends. Accordingly, I'm a little too excited about the limited-time return of Endless Shrimp at Red Lobster. I'm guessing this is not the mindset of those who have to serve it.

In Austin, Endless Shrimp can be yours for a mere $15.99. This includes a salad that won't fool anyone and plenty of Cheddar Bay biscuits. Go easy on the latter or you'll lose valuable digestive tract real estate that ought to house gobs of hastily masticated shrimp.

I know endless shrimp is unsustainable and morally suspect, but as Sting once sang, when the world is running down, order more scampi.

Of beers and buses

If you live in North Central Austin and you like to drink some beers, congratulations. You sound like my kinda people. Now go read about reporter/beer blogger Lee Nichols' "No. 3 Bus Pub Crawl" in this week's Austin Chronicle.

I'm not a big fan of the No. 3 Burnet/Manchaca bus as a means of getting to and from the center of town. Its convoluted routing down Medical Pkwy. and through West Campus greatly hampers the line's utility in comparison to the No. 1 and the No. 5.

The No. 3 does hit a fantastic array of good places to drink beer, though. And it stops within a 3-block stumble of my home.

The thrill of the chase

I've always wanted to shadow a tornado chaser, but as the Travel Channel's Tornado Alley U.S.A. demonstrates, it ain't all funnel clouds and grapefruit-sized hail.

There are no guarantees with weather, so you could fork over $2,000 to minivan your way around America's big wide middle and never witness a single wall cloud. Imagine hauling your ass all the way from London to Nebraska and coming up vortex-less. What a damn shame that would be.

Clearly there is a market need for a tornado chase outfit that balances the uncertainty of finding the business end of Mother Nature's wrath with the restorative powers of being on the business end of a table dance. If I were Warren Buffett, I'd double down on the first company that breaks up the monotony of fruitless chase days with a sampling of Midwestern men's clubs, particularly those with steak-and-shrimp lunch specials.

And what would this weather-porn dream factory on wheels be called? Titty Twisters!

Hat Creek lassos former Arby's sign

Kate called me in Atlanta earlier this week to say the former Arby's "big hat" neon sign on Burnet has a new lease on life thanks to Hat Creek Burger Company. I couldn't wait to see the sign for myself because that's just the kind of dork I am.

I think the design is pretty smart overall. While I wish they could've used neon, I imagine it would've been inefficient and expensive compared to backlit plastic.

Best known for their trailer at 6th and Nueces, Hat Creek features fresh Angus beef patties, hand-cut fries and Blue Bell shakes. It'll be interesting to see how this new location fares against nearby competitors like P. Terry's and Moo-Yah.

Either way, I give 'em props for thoughtfully re-purposing a fading symbol of American fast food history.

UPDATE (10/5/09): Turns out they used some neon in the sign after all. Sweet.