S. and I are having a lazy weekend, which last night involved going to A.'s new apartment. She lives in the Metropolis Apartments, one of the first green building projects in Austin. (Hit the link and scroll down that page for information). The complex serves as low-cost, funky housing for a very eclectic mix of tenants and features a topless pool, among other amenities. We sat outside and drank beer with a revolving cast of neighbors, then moved along to dinner. (Sidenote: I am still somewhat shocked by the casual, open way people smoke pot down here...it's nice, but hard to get used to. I keep expecting someone to yell "Cheese it...the cops!!")
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Today we went and played disc golf on this course. S. is an enthusiast and I have to say I was a crabby and somewhat grudging participant, mostly because I knew I was going to suck at it and I hate sucking at things. Austin has five disc golf courses; this one is set in a hilly, wooded park. You basically walk through the woods trying to fling a Frisbee into a chain basket on a pole. In a lot of places, you are throwing blind - through trees, into a curve, over a ditch, down a cliff. The holes are between 50-200 yards from tee to basket. Very bizarre. There are different styles of discs for different shots; some are named after golf clubs (ie. putter, slicer) and some are more complex. The course was busy and there were some hard-core players who had full sets of discs they were carrying around in "disc bags" which are similar to a shoulder-slung golf bag. A bonus to our game was seeing both a barn swallow AND a swallow-tail butterfly as we wended our way through the course.
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This evening it's dark and stormy and I will be content to stay inside and fill my neglected-since-I got-here shelves with books.
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