E’s sister lives in Austin (smart girl) and throws an annual crawfish boil boat party. She and a bunch of friends rent the equivalent of a floating platform with an engine, invite tons of people, buy tons of beer, and spend the day floating around Lake Travis eating crawfish. I was probably the only person on the boat that didn’t eat the crawfish and didn’t drink the beer – I don’t like crawfish and I brought my own beer (see the 6-pack of Blue Star below).
Eating crawfish is an entirely uneconomical activity. You stand around a table of crawfish (which, by the way, aren’t even fish) and pull these creatures apart, covering your hands in their intestines and various bodily excretions in order to get to a small morsel of meat. Why all that work? Yeah yeah, supposedly it’s fun and facilitates “hanging out,” though I’d rather forgo the crawfish eating, which would fail any basic cost-benefit analysis test, and hang out while eating chicken or beef. So, I brought my own chicken and grilled it on the on-board BBQ grill. After I had a piece, it became all the rage, and the rest of the chicken disappeared in minutes flat. Go figure.
The water in the lake was pretty much perfect. Lots of people went for a swim, jumped off the top level – oh yeah, this was a double-decker boat – and / or slid down the slide.
Some important info about this slide.
The slide was deceptively wet. Before one attempts to slide down the slide, one should ensure it is sufficiently wetted so as not to burn one’s hips or tuchus on the way down. E (poor thing) was the first person to attempt the slide, and did so quite valiantly. However, she was also the first (and last) person to get their hips burnt. I was in the water during the unfortunate event and it sounded like a car coming to a screeching halt. It sounded like it hurt. A lot. The resulting red mark looks no less painful than the initial injury. We should all send waves of sympathy her way.
Please commence waves of sympathy now. Thank you.
And as for all those people jumping off the boat, I also neglected to mention they jumped right after I took my shirt off. I’m not saying there’s necessarily a causal connection there, but I’m not ruling it out either.
OK, maybe I’m exaggerating. They didn’t all jump off when my shirt came off. Just lots of them.
Dinner Saturday night was spent at Z Tejas on Lake Austin Blvd. E and I relaxed and took a walk around the block afterwards, noting the Amy’s Ice Cream down the street and the homeless guy mumbling things I couldn’t understand. We fulfilled our official Austin duty and had ice cream there on Sunday.
My dad happens to be a fan of Kerbey Lane’s pancakes, so I took the cash he gave me and presented it to the hostess: “Hi, I need to get as many bags of gingerbread pancake mix that $50 will buy.” She looked at me like I was an alien. My dad was ecstatic when I gave him the eight bags of pancake mix. That should hold him for a while.
Pictures from the weekend are forthcoming.
Comments (9)
LUCKYYYYYYYY.
Posted by p-man | February 10, 2007 8:16 PM
Posted on February 10, 2007 20:16
URL: http://
like hell i am sitting tight - i'm in chi-town and i am going out with d tonight. PARTYEEE TIME! [if you're lucky, you'll get a drunk dial.]
Posted by ej | February 10, 2007 8:16 PM
Posted on February 10, 2007 20:16
URL: http://
mmmm. crabs. mmmmmmmmmmmm. sit tight! i'm on the way. just close your eyes and count to 50 gajillion and i'll be there.
Posted by p-man | February 10, 2007 8:16 PM
Posted on February 10, 2007 20:16
URL: http://www.metromix.com
yes it hurt like hell about 5 mins after it happened (everyone was talking about the noise and i had not a clue what they were talking about). after much pain over the last week, i am finally healing up nicely. i think it's because i am in my favorite city in the whole country (see web link). speaking of sea creatures, shedd aquarium rocks - they are having a crabs - not those kind of crabs - exhibit this weekend. heather - i was sucking the heads (keep your heads out of the gutter)... it's part of the fun! what a great weekend in austin - you know how to have (and show me) a good time! it's time for our next weekend get-a-way. i am here but where are you????
Posted by ej | February 10, 2007 8:16 PM
Posted on February 10, 2007 20:16
URL: http://www.redhotmamma.blogspot.com
i'm not a crawfish fan either, unless it's already de-shelled and cooked up in etouffe or in a crawfish po'boy. mmmmmm! but why didn't you mention the custom of sucking the heads? [insert dirty joke here.] yep, i've got the mind of a 12 yr old boy. sorry about e's booty. i can hear the sound in my mind right now.
Posted by heather | February 10, 2007 8:16 PM
Posted on February 10, 2007 20:16
URL: http://
e - i expect an itemized, descriptive, somnambulistic list of the things that amused you. i depend on these lists for my personal improvement sessions that i have with me and myself and our personal improvement sessions that we have. try to figure out that sentence, why don't you. s - i like your theory. i don't eat frogs. i'm happy to report i have not dissected anything else so far. yeah, you're right, that needs to be updated. let me know when you're done and i'll let everyone know. a - yup, i do remember that boat. it reminded me of that movie with that guy who lived in a house boat and scored a really hot girl at the end of the movie. guess i just ruined the movie, if we can figure out which movie it is. so did you actually swim? maybe the people jumping off the boat were flocking towards you as opposed to away from me.
Posted by p-man | February 10, 2007 8:16 PM
Posted on February 10, 2007 20:16
Any chance you saw the houseboat with the large austinhouseboat.com banner on the side? That was me and seven other college buddies that got together for our 10th year college reunion... I wish I had known you were hitting the lake that day...
Posted by Andrew | February 10, 2007 8:16 PM
Posted on February 10, 2007 20:16
URL: http://
my general rule of thumb is this: if i have dissected it in biology, it's not food. hence, i don't eat crawfish. being the jazz-hater who went to music school in new orleans and didn't eat crawfish i was quite popular, needless to say. [waving sympathy now] gingerbread pancakes sound amazing right now. while pman.org is "procrastination central" [isn't it about time to change that, mr. summer vacation?], everywhere i am is procrastination station. welcome, pull up a chair!
Posted by swandive00 | February 10, 2007 8:16 PM
Posted on February 10, 2007 20:16
URL: http://nottotallyinept.blogspot.com
this post was good times, and contained many items that appealed to me. i don't have time to deal with them on an individual basis, but i will say: i'm sorry about your girlfriend's markings, and everyone abandoning ship when your shirt came off. maybe they were just trying to get a better view of you from the water or something. people are funny creatures. okay, good job talk to you later!
Posted by erik | February 10, 2007 8:16 PM
Posted on February 10, 2007 20:16