Friday morning update on Jim

Spoke to Doug briefly this morning. His dad is doing well and is up some, walking and moving around. One thing though, Jim is getting some fluid build-up on his lungs. This is not completely unusual, but it is something that they have to watch and be concerned with.

In other news today, I have been nominated to be a speaker at summer commencement. There is a whole nomination and interview process, so who knows if I'll get it. In the spring I had been nominated for outstanding graduate for the College of Fine Arts & Communication but lost out to a music major. Let's face it, in my mid-30s I'm really not into student organizations and campus life, which is what I think hurt me. I guess being nominated is one more reason to finish the thesis. Funny thing is I wasn't even sure if I would attend graduation or not. I definitely wasn't making a big deal out of it. Guess if I am selected as a speaker I will have to go.

Thursday evening update on Jim

Just talked to Doug. He sounds exhausted and I know Barbara is, but the good news is that everything seems to be going well for Jim. He got out of ICU and into his own room about mid-afternoon. Doug said the color is coming back to his face, although he's still pretty groggy. They think he'll be heading back to Chillicothe Sunday or Monday.

The plan is that Barbara and Doug will stay at the Embassy Suites tonight and tomorrow night and will head back to Chillicothe Saturday. They need to get some errands done in town and get a few other things done. They'll spend the night at the house Saturday and drive back to KC Sunday. Doug has a 9 a.m. flight home on Sunday. I know things must be going well for Jim as Barbara is being her usual "we don't want to be a bother" self and is insisting that Doug sticks to his flight plans (when in reality we just booked a return flight because we had to and knew we could change it). Given that this blog has significantly increased the number of readers from Chillicothe, I'm sure Barbara will get plenty of help if she needs it once she gets home.

One thing Doug told me is that Barbara is going to have to start chauffeuring around Jim while he's in the back seat. Evidently with all the front-passenger airbags and safety equipment, they don't want heart patients to sit in the front seat in case of a wreak and the airbag is deployed. Let's hope this doesn't have to last too long, as I don't see Barbara taking kindly to Jim being a back seat driver. Poor Barbara! Jim will insist she back into every parking space!

If/when Doug calls tomorrow, I will try to do an update. In the meantime, no news is good news, meaning Jim is doing well in his recovery.

Thursday morning update on Jim

Just spoke to Doug. His dad got through the night okay, but is still pretty groggy and out of it. He'll be in ICU until later this afternoon. Doug and Barbara can go in and see him for a few minutes every half hour. They'll see him at 11:30 and are then going out for a bite of lunch, shopping and fresh air.

At 1 p.m. Barbara will be attending some sort of class at the hospital on after care of heart patients. Doug wasn't sure what that was about, but figured it would be things like cooking and exercise requirements or something. Doug has actually been able to get some work done and will continue to do so this afternoon. His buddy Mark might try to get together with him later on.

That's all the news for now. Will let you know if I hear anything more.

Update on Doug's dad

Doug just called. Jim is out of surgery and everything went fine. Doug and Barbara will get to see Jim in a half hour after the anesthesia wears off, but they said Jim probably won't even remember.

The doctors will keep Jim in ICU for 24 hours to monitor him. This is a critical time and what happens now will tell the doctors how he is recovering. Some time tomorrow afternoon he will get into his room. After then, they will have a better idea of when he gets to go home to Chillicothe.

Barbara and Doug are staying in the hotel (Embassy Suites) again tonight. Barbara is doing well, but as you can imagine, is exhausted. It sounds like they are going to see Jim at 4:30 and then head back to the hotel. They go back to the hospital in the morning.

All of your prayers and well wishes are appreciated. I know Barbara will enjoy reading them when she gets back online.

Fw:DAD THINKS HE IS BRAD PITT

Note and photo from Doug as Jim heads to surgery. Not sure what the Tom Cruise comment means. Guess they have Jim some great drugs this morning!

Florist recommendation

This is for the folks from Chillicothe who are looking for updates on Jim. If you are thinking about sending flowers to the hospital, I recommend Westport Floral Designs at 866-391-7673. I just spoke to John, the owner, and he was very friendly and helpful. He actually had a better timeframe of what was going on than Doug, because he deals with it every day. He thought Jim would be out of surgery around lunch time, would then be in recovery and ICU. It might be late tonight or the morning before he gets to his room. However, they will get the flowers to him once a room number is assigned. Also, you will want to send the flowers to James D. (Jim) French, as I'm not sure if he is checked in as James or Jim. HIPPA regulations won't allow the hospital to give out patient's names, so if you send it to Jim French and he's checked in as James, they will say he's not there (I'm sure it's the same if you make any phone calls).

Anyway, I'm huge on customer service, as folks who know me will attest. Whenever I find someone good, I like to funnel business their way. This guy really impressed me.

A pro-smoking neighborhood

This is one of the few places in Austin where smoking is allowed and encourage, although it's not the kind of smoke you inhale. If Doug reads this article, he'll want to move there.

More details on Doug's dad

Doug made it to KC this evening, landing at 7. He hasn't seen his dad yet, but spent some time with his mom. She was very happy that he flew up for the operation.

Jim is in St. Luke's Hospital, the one near Country Club Plaza. His surgery is some time after 9 a.m. tomorrow, although Doug wasn't sure exactly when. Word is that Jim's heart is strong, there are just those blockages. This is very positive. If everything goes well, and there is no reason why it shouldn't, Jim should be back in Chillicothe this weekend, either Saturday or Sunday.

Will let you know more after Doug calls me tomorrow.

Jumping horses

I'm trying to learn how to take video clips from my camera and upload them to the blog. I think I may have figured it out. This video is of my friend Karen, practicing jumping her horse. The video was taken at her ranch back in March.

Testing video feed

I'm testing video capabilities from YouTube.com. This is not my cat. Dexter is not nearly as agile. This morning he missed when jumping from the edge of the bathtub to his ledge. Luckily there was no water in the tub.

Doug's dad

We got word this morning that Doug's dad will have to undergo heart bypass surgery in the morning. I was able to get Doug on an afternoon flight to Kansas City, using our frequent flyer miles. Unfortunately I won't be able to go because of my thesis deadline. Doug thinks it would be too difficult revising drafts in the hospital.

I'm still not sure all the details with his father, but will keep readers posted as I know. In the meantime, I need to drive Doug to the hospital to catch his flight.

Stressed

You probably won't hear much from me in the next week or so. I'm on a tight deadline to finish my thesis. I need to have everything finished by July 5th so that my committee can receive it and I can defend it July 12th. Because of faculty vacation, if it's not done by then, it won't meet the deadline for summer graduation. If I don't graduate, there is an issue with my teaching employment in the fall (because I was a TA, I can't join the faculty until I have a degree). Thus far, my thesis advisor has approved my first three chapters, but one of my committee members wants revisions. I've done the results chapter first draft, but it needs major revisions. I'm writing my last two chapters and will have first draft to my advisor today.

Ugh!

You're not going to believe it

Doug's flight was delayed again. He was supposed to leave Providence, RI at 6:30 this morning, but as of yet, the flight crew isn't available -- they got in late last night. So now he's on a different flight, heading first to Cleveland, changing planes and heading to Houston, then changing again and heading to Austin. But here's the deal. Checking his new flights I noticed that his flight from Cleveland to Houston is already delayed 33 minutes. This means as of right now, he has 13 minutes to catch his connecting flight, assuming his plane isn't delayed any more.

Needless to say, Doug is extremely exhausted. He actually has a good rant about airlines and on-time claims, and how they run their business, but I will leave that to him. It's just is flight up there was delayed and now he can't seem to get home. All I know is that our goodwill towards Continental is quickly diminishing. We were thinking about changing our credit card frequent flyer miles from American to Continental, but now we have to think long and hard about it.

Delayed

After four nights in Rhode Island, Doug was supposed to be on a 7 a.m. flight home this morning. I was looking forward to picking him up at noon and heading out to lunch before coming home and writing my thesis. As I sat down to write this morning I decided to check the status of his flight. He only had a 45 minute layover, so I wondered about his connection.

Looking online I noticed his connecting flight was delayed. This was good, I thought, as he didn't have to worry about missing the flight. However, it put him in Austin at 2. I decided to call him about his delay. When I grabbed my cell I realized I missed a call when I was in the shower. It was Doug calling to say that he was delayed. The catch was, he wasn't going to come in until tomorrow. Huh?

I called him back. Evidently his flight out of Providence had been delayed, which was going to cause him to miss his connecting flight in Newark. Since Thursday is a busy travel day with all the road warriors trying to get home, all the flights were booked. There was only one seat available for the rest of the day -- a late flight connecting through Houston, in a middle seat, arriving in Austin at midnight. Being exhausted after a long week, Doug opted not to take that. Instead, he's staying an extra day and catching the early flight out.

Deciding to make the most of it, Doug is driving to Cape Code today to check out the area. I know when he was a road warrior back in the late 90s he used to love to stay extra days and go exploring. It's got to be great weather this time of year -- much better than when we went in February. I'm a bit jealous, but I'm too busy on my thesis to have taken this week off.

Doug may also go to Foxwoods Casino tonight in CT. Out of four nights of this trip, he's been there three times to play poker. All total he's up more than $800 on the week. I think he's ready to hang up his free, play for fun, poker league and play for money tournaments. Too bad it's illegal in Texas.

As for me, one more night home alone with the dogs and cat. At least I should be able to get some writing done before he returns.

Two dog night

Doug is out of town on business this week, which always means I don't sleep as well. In addition, I'm under a deadline on my thesis and am stressed. The girl who might have 1 Diet Dr. Pepper every day or two had 5 yesterday. And we are waiting to hear whether Doug's contract will be extended beyond the end of this month. It's no wonder I didn't sleep well last night.

But it was more than that. Normally the dogs aren't supposed to sleep on the bed. That doesn't stop them, but they usually sleep on Doug's side of the bed, well away from mom and her tendency to kick, push and shove until they get off the bed. In their quest for the right side of the bed, they tend to nudge Doug to the very edge of the bed. Often the only place for his feet is hanging off the bed.

Last night the dogs took it upon themselves to cuddle with me and make me feel better when I went to bed. Dante laid on Doug's pillow, propping himself up like a king. After awhile he stretched out and started pushing against me. Allegra, on the other hand, curled up at my hip. As the night wore on, she too stretched out. When I got out of bed to turn on the fan to cool down the room a bit, I noticed that instead of having the run of a king-sized bed, I had a small sliver, towards the edge.

At this point I decided that I would push, shove and make life generally miserable to get some space back. Usually it's just a shove or two and the dogs get annoyed enough that they'll opt for their mat on the floor. But last night Allegra decided she was going to hold her ground. She stretched out in the middle of the bed and was not going to move, no matter how much I pushed and prodded. Her 51 lbs. felt like it could have been 151 lbs. At one point I even used her to prop up my leg and still didn't get a response. I could doze off for an hour, but as soon as I rolled over to get more comfortable, there she was, blocking my movements and in the process, waking from my sleep. A knee in the back didn't work -- it was like resistance training. She was smart enough to stay in the middle of the bed because at the foot of the bed she would have had a foot in her ribs. At one point in this wrestling match I started thinking that something was wrong as she absolutely wasn't moving. Then I felt her breathing as I propped my knee across her chest.

Two nights down, two more to go before Doug returns. I think I will have to forego the cuddling in hopes of better sleep.

Let me in

Our friend Ray, making us laugh at the WOW tasting last night.

June WOW tasting

Last night was the June wine tasting for Women of Wine and the Men Who Adore Them. Instead of doing the usual tasting at someone's house and we all bring bottles of wine, we held our tasting at Water 2 Wine, a custom winery. Not only does Water 2 Wine sell wine, allowing you to sample before you buy, they also allow you to make your own wine. Last night we sampled 5 whites and 5 reds. Like our gatherings, we had great food (Cindy's savory cheesecake was the best!) and lots of fun conversations. Unfortunately, we won't have another WOW gathering until the weather cools down in October.

Must-read interview

Watching the movie Hotel Rwanda, I was really moved by the story. One thing that struck me during the movie is that I didn't remember hearing of any of the events. Since watching the movie, I've seen other shows about what happened in Rwanda, including Sometimes in April.

Today I had another one of those realizations that I know little about what's going on in the world. Austinist interviewed Gilbert Tuhabonye about his book and the genocide in Burundi. As an Austinist, I knew who Tuhabonye is. However, I never heard of his country, Burundi, nor did I know what happened there. Now I am interested in reading more. It's amazing these massive killings go on simply due to someone being from another tribe and we Americans hear little of it. If you get a chance, read the interview.

Need education, not laws

The Austin City Council may broaden the current bicycle helmet law, requiring all adult cyclists to wear helmets while riding. If passed, people on bicycles would wear helmets, but people on motorcycles would still be helmetless. This makes no sense to me, especially after what happened this week to Ben Roethlisberger.

I am a novice rider and enjoy my rides. So far my rides are short (the route is 7.5 miles) and slow (average speed is 8 mph) and on a hike/bike path. Chances are that I won't get anything more than a scraped elbow, but I do wear my helmet. Even when I was test-driving my new bike in the parking lot of the bike store, the folks at Buck's Bikes had me wearing a helmet.

I think cyclists should wear helmets, but I think we should get people to wear them through education, not through laws. Most of the serious cyclists wear helmets; you never see anyone on 360 or 2222 without helmets. It's the novice riders like myself who don't wear helmets. We should be encouraging folks to ride more, not punishing them when they do.

How many movies can you find?

There are 100 movies represented in this photo. How many can you find? Add yours in the Comments section. Doug and I will get you started:
1. Napoleon Dynamite
2. Toy Story
3. Dances with Wolves
4. Saw II
5. 12 Monkeys

We can go on, but it's your turn.

Summer salads

It's so hot here, who wants to cook (or eat) much during the summer. Lately I've taken to making salads for dinner. These two were real winners. Original recipes were meatless, but I live with a carnivore, so I add grilled chicken. I'm not really sure of all the exact measurements as I just use recipes as a guide. I would just add to taste. :-)

Chicken/Blueberry
I took this to a pool party and folks loved it
5 oz. mixed greens
2 grilled chicken breasts
4 oz. feta cheese
Toasted almonds
Blueberries (maybe 2 cups?)
Dressing:
2 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs red wine vinegar
1.5 tsp honey
(Doug actually thought there should be a bit more dressing on the salad)

Salad 2
Doug raved about this one last night
Mixed greens or green leaf lettuce
2 grilled chicken breasts
4-5 oz goat cheese (chevre)
Toasted walnuts
Dried cranberries
1 mango, diced
1 apple, diced (recipe didn't call for this but I added)
Dressing
3 Tbs of rice wine vinegar (or some other light vinegar)
6 Tbs of olive oil (or oil of your choice; recipe called for walnut oil, but that's expensive)
Honey (to taste)
Dijon mustard (to taste)

Drive-by shooting

Last week a friend of mine was shot. It was early evening and he was riding his bike, ironically on the way to a meeting of the Austin Cycling Association. Despite the large number of cyclists in Austin, including Lance Armstrong, it seems like we have a lot of incidents where motorists are harassing cyclists. I’m a novice rider but want to get more into it, especially after I bought a new bike this weekend. Unfortunately, stories of harassment make me want to stay off the road and away from motorists.

My friend, G, was in south Austin, near Sunset Valley, when a white van pulled next to him. A teenager, maybe 19, started yelling and shouting obscenities at G, and threw trash at him. G, keeping his composure, just smiled, waved, and kept riding as the van passed. A few blocks later G noticed that the van was stopped at a light. Catching up to the van, G stopped, went to the passenger’s side, put his hands on the open window and asked, “Is there something you wanted to say to me?” Looking in, G noticed that the van was driven by a little person (e.g. a dwarf). The harassing passenger was visibly startled, see G at the window, but the light finally changed and the van drove off.

G makes it through the light, continuing his ride. A little bit up the road he notices the white van pulled into an empty parking lot and senses trouble. As G passes, the passenger pulls out a pellet gun, aiming it directly at G. At this point, G starts peddling as fast as he can. He feels the first pellet fly past him. The second pellet hits his shoulder. As the van drives off, G turns around to see if he could get a license plate number, but couldn’t.

X-rays at the hospital show that the pellet didn’t break G’s skin – he was simply nicked, thank goodness. The police took his statement and seemed to chalk it up to kids and vandalism. They said that since school has been out, there have been increased reports of vandalism with pellet guns. This, in and of itself, is alarming to me. It also bothers me that the police can’t find a little person who drives a white van. As I joked to G, they would be able to find it if it were Law & Order.

What bothers me the most, however, is that this kid seemed to think it was funny to harass a cyclist and that it was okay to shoot another human. This raises all sorts of questions of where we are as a society. But for the time being, I’m just glad my friend is okay.

Statistics is for the dogs

"Hey Dante, if we want to compare how frequently people read blogs to credibility ratings, what test would we run?" I'm at the table, running statistical calculations on survey data for my thesis. Dante is on the floor next to me. He looks up when I talk to him.

"I'll give you a hint, Dante. The frequency, since there isn't an even space between the categories, is ordinal data. Credibility is integral data." Dante shifts his weight. "With ordinal data and integral data, we have to run a Spearman's Rho," I tell him. Dante sighs, laying his head back down. After all, he is a dog and the only statistic he cares about is the frequency he gets fed compared to the amount of petting he receives.

Actually, I'm right there with him. It's been a year since I took my Research Methods class, which was confusing to begin with. As a result, nothing stuck. I'm just as lost as I was when I was in the class. The sad part is that I was one of the better students in that class. I spent two years writing and administrating market research surveys, so I have that down. But when it comes to statistics, ugh! Oh well, if I can get through this part, I will be on track to finish this summer and graduate.

Why Doug brews beer

A recent study from Oregon State University shows that there is an ingredient in beer hops that helps fight prostate cancer. No wonder Doug is so into brewing!

BTW, two years ago this month Doug started brewing. Since that times he's made 57 different beers. This doesn't include the beers that he's made multiple times, like his Mexican Pilsner. No wonder our house looks like a beer storage facility!

Blueberry explosion

"Doug! Come into the kitchen, please!" It's morning and he's still in bed. "What do you need?" he groggly moans. "Just come into the kitchen, please, now," I answer. He walks into the kitchen and sees why I'm yelling at. "Holy sh#*," was all he could say. Our kitchen is covered in blueberries.

As I wrote the other day, we decided to try our hand at making blueberry wine. Monday night we crushed the berries, placing 6 lbs. of crushed blueberries in each of three 1 gallon glass carboys. We then added camden tablets to kill any wild yeast that might be on the berries. Last night we started the fermentation process by adding 2 lbs. of raw sugar to each carboy and then adding our yeast. Each carboy got a different type of yeast, as we were experimenting with the recipes. The carboys were definitely full, but Doug thought it might be okay. Usually wine is not that active.

Unfortunately, this recipe, given to us by the blueberry farmer, was very active. As he was cleaning this morning, Doug decided to place the carboys in the shower that we don't use much, so that if they explode, they will be contained and easier to clean. Of course, they exploded again today. It looks like thus far we've lost half of each gallon of wine.

Of course, we are trying to laugh about this, but we are still finding spots of blueberry juice on the ceiling, carpet, and the dogs' paws.

Finding my thrill on blueberry hill

In our quest to make wine, this weekend Doug and I decided that we would make some blackberry wine and some blueberry wine. We had planned on doing it over Memorial Day weekend, but from talking to some farmers, blueberries weren’t going to be quite ready yet. We decided to wait until this weekend and do both.

First off, I must say that it is not easy to find blueberries near Austin. The Texas Pick Your Own site listed two places out towards Bastrop, and one place 90 miles northeast, past Taylor and on past Hearne. Blackberries can be found all over the place, but not blueberries. One of the guys out towards Bastrop swore that he had the juiciest berries in all of Texas, but he didn’t open until after noon on Sundays, and we didn’t relish the idea of picking in the heat of the afternoon. Plus, he never sent us directions.

Originally Doug and I were just going to head out towards Bastrop and see if we could find any fruit stands. Yesterday morning, about 8:30, we loaded the car with the dogs and headed out. Doug, thinking that the farm to the northeast was closer to Taylor than it was, and because it opened early on Sunday, headed out that way. About 45 minutes into the trip and Doug realized it was much further than he thought. Another 30 minutes and we knew that we were committed to picking, and not to just buying at a roadside stand (especially when there weren’t any).

About 10:15 we arrived at the De Zavala farm, 8.5 miles east of Franklin, and about 30 minutes north of College Station. It was run by a nice older couple. Blackberries and blueberries were $2.75 per pound if we picked them, and $3.50 per pound if they picked them, only they didn’t have any picked. Their farm hand was out on Friday and they didn’t have enough for us. We figured that was okay. Mr. De Zavala drove us around the farm on his golf cart. He showed us his blackberries and explained that one batch had been picked over, while the other batch probably wouldn’t be ready until this weekend. He also showed us his raspberries, which intrigued me, as I love raspberries and want to try that as some wine. Unfortunately, raspberries aren’t commonly found in Texas and I knew from the Pick Your Own site he is one of three farmers in Texas that grows raspberries. Mr. De Zavala said that they too would be ready next weekend for large batches, but that the season was only two weeks in length.

Then we got to the blueberries. He explained that normally blueberries don’t grow this far west in Texas (must be why only found a limited listing of farms), but that he specially treats the soil. Since neither of us had ever picked blueberries before, he showed us something about the berries. One thing to know is that the berries don’t all ripen the same. You’ll see a cluster of 5 berries and maybe two will be ready to pick. He showed us the difference between blueberries that were all blue, and thus ripe and sweet, and blueberries that still had spots of red, which were more acidic. Bottom line, you had to pick each berry by hand and individually – there was no just grabbing a clump and being done with it.

I guess I didn’t know what to expect, but the blueberry picking was different from what I imagined. First, I didn’t realize that trees were more like hedges, and grew 6 feet tall. I was thankful for this, as it didn’t mean being bent low like when picking strawberries. I also didn’t know that it would take so long – more than 2.5 hours for three buckets. Hoping that we would find a roadside stand, I didn’t wear sunscreen and my shoulders got burned. Doug was in jeans. And while we could go up to the farmhouse and get water, we really would have liked to have some there with us. The dogs were okay with the picking. The car was under the shade of tall pines, but they wanted to be in the hot sun with us. After a while we had to leash them because they would start back to the farmhouse in search of water for themselves. Occasionally they find shade under a blueberry bush, but would want to wander as we moved down the path. Dante did find a nice patch of hay, which was covering a pile of fertilizer (aka manure), and decided to spend five minutes rolling in it. He was as happy as a pig in mud.

When it was said and done, we picked 3 buckets of blueberries, which came to just over 19 pounds. As we were paying the couple, and getting more ice water, Mr. De Zavala talked wine with us and let us sample his blueberry wine. He admits he makes it a bit sweet, but it was good. He and Doug talked about the process and he gave Doug some good suggestions for the wine.

It was almost 4 p.m. when we got back home. Tonight we’re going to start on the blueberry wine. Next week we may go back and get blackberries and raspberries and try our hands at making some of that. We will keep readers posted on how our wines turn out

Interpreting the president

This video is hilarious! It's an excerpt from the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner. President Bush’s presentation included an impersonator, Steve Bridges, who "interpreted" the president's remarks for laymen.

Get on the bus

We saw the strangest thing today at Parmer and Mo-Pac -- a British double-decker bus. It was complete with the driver on the right-hand side of the vehicle. We're not sure what it was doing in Austin, or where it was heading (maybe to Dell as it continued past I-35). Let me know if you have spotted this bus. It has my curiosity piqued.

Weekend of diversity

The big thing going on in Austin this weekend is the Republic of Texas (ROT) biker rally. Each year thousands of bikers from across Texas and the nation roll into Austin. Driving around town you will see nothing but bikes, bikes, and more bikes. Tonight there will be a huge motorcycle pride through downtown.

What I think is funny, however, is that this weekend is also Pride weekend, put on by the Austin Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. Not to be outdone, tomorrow night there will be a huge parade. Last year there were 1,300 parade participants (including my friend Sandy who offered her convertible to chauffer a drag queen) and 40,000 spectators.

I don't know why, but I think it's funny that the bikers and the gays have their celebration on the same weekend. It's seems like such a dichotomy of culture and that it could be a recipe for disaster; luckily, that hasn't been the case in the past. I know the stereotypes of bikers being rednecks are untrue, and that Harleys cost a lot of money, but many of the bikers I've met have been a little rough around the edges. Last year I asked one of my gay friends about the festivities being on the same weekend and he laughed, saying lesbians were really into to Harleys.

For Austinites who aren't into bikes or gay pride, a memorial concert will be held for Clifford Antone tomorrow night. Antone is responsible for bringing the blues to Austin. Jimmie Vaughn is one of the performers.

However, Doug and I will be at something completely different tomorrow night. We are volunteering at the Zachary Scott Theatre, which is bringing back its hit show, Crowns. The premise of the show is about African-American ladies and the fancy hats they wear to church. Some of the best singers Austin has belt out inspirational gospel. I really wish they would do a recording of it.

Motorcycles, gay pride, blues and gospel. Is there anything we are leaving out this weekend? Austin is nothing if not diverse.