Nicole made it her mission to ensure that this holiday weekend was more memorable and relaxing than the last one and, spoiler alert, she aced the assignment. This is despite the fact that my skin is stubbornly refusing to respond to any prescription medication and I find being outside in this heat intolerable beyond “getting in and out of the car.” Friday evening we had what I think were the best hamburgers I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating. She spent all afternoon making a mushroom/truffle spread, a homemade garlic aioli, and baking some french “fries” in such a way that you didn’t really notice that they were baked. Once you’ve added entirely too much brie, the burger itself is almost beside the point. It was really good, but everything else was transcendent. Not at all a bad start. On Saturday, we did some exploring around town. We started by hitting up a local apiary called The Beeswax Department over on the west side of town. They sell honey from their bees and those of other local folks, as well as beeswax candles and other goodies, and even beekeeping equipment. Mark spent a good twenty minutes chatting with us which was awfully generous of him. They’re good folks, and we wound up leaving with far more than we’d intended to buy. Since we were almost literally across the street from ’em, we stopped by Granzin’s Meat Market as well. The only reason we didn’t pick up any of their wares was that they were so busy that we wanted to come back later when we’d have more of an opportunity to check them out without inconveniencing anyone else. The dried goods and the pre-packaged cuts looked great, but it was the meat counter itself that deserved closer inspection. Sunday morning we drove into San Antonio to visit the Alamo. You may say “Gee Ridley. You’ve been in Texas for a long time. Have you never visited the Alamo before?” Well, yes, of course, I have. But what I have not done is see the Phil Collins collection. Yes, the famous drummer/singer/producer is also one of the world’s foremost Alamo buffs. His private collection of memorabilia was considered the largest and most important of any on the planet, and he donated it all to the Alamo. He also narrated the story of the battle in the room with the diorama: Given my unabashed fandom, this was kind of thrilling to me. I mean, there are only so many old guns and documents and such you can look at before your eyes start to glaze over, but the fact that one of my favorite musicians just gave it all away made me smile. Totally worth it to me; your mileage might vary. This morning, we popped over to the local theater to see Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. My expectations were high given how much I enjoyed the original, but this was another level of awesome. Instead of just stretching the visual limits of cinema, this film (damned if I’m typing the full name again) absolutely destroyed those boundaries. The things they do with frame rates as a storytelling device are unreal and must have been incredibly expensive. Oh, and the story was pretty great too. Hobie Brown is the best representation of “punk rock” I’ve seen in a film. It was all just awesome. Also, going to a local cinema at 11:00 AM on a Monday sometimes means you have the auditorium to yourself, and that doesn’t suck. So yeah, #$%$%^ great weekend. Thank you, Nicole. Somehow, you made a 3-day weekend feel like a lot more. Hope y’all are doing well and keeping cool (109 here today), -RK
