We're heading to Austin this weekend, mostly so I can hang onto my gold status with my preferred airline, but also because it's great to get to visit family and friends. We've got one good day and a short morning to do everything that needs to be done, including visit Ikea (oh, excuse me: IKEA), have breakfast at Austin Java Co., have pancakes at Kerbey Lane, have BBQ at Ruby's, Kruetz's, and the Salt Lick, oh and at Black's too, so that Kruetz's don't get too full of themselves, lemonade at Hoover's, Flintstone's style ribs at Art's, iced chai at Quackenbush's (rats, closed now), coffee at Spider House, watch the water flow by at Mozart's, hike on the greenbelt, swim in Barton Springs, drive to Wimberley and back to see the Devil's backbone, shop on South Congress, visit the Whole Foods world HQ, go by my old building on campus, eat vegetarian lasagne at Mother's, eat dessert at Jeffrey's, buy a chrome Bevo at the Co-op, lie on the grass in the South Mall on campus, catch some live music at Stubb's, see my brother, s-i-l, mom, dad, T&E, and their 2 little ones a and m (did you catch that? they're now T.E.A.M.- ha!), walk the old neighborhood and mull over real estate, decide we really SHOULD move back someday, talk ourselves out of it because real estate is too expensive and it's too hot in the summer, and, finally, Waterloo records for the latest KGSR recordings. Whew! Think we'll pull it off?

Aaaaaanyway, so we're doing this trip to ensure next year's gold status with an airline. The only reason I bother is because if you're gold, you get treated only just a little bit worse than non-gold people were treated 5 years ago. If you're gold now, you're flying 3rd class with Jon Arbuckle. Non-gold passengers are placed in the 3rd class luggage bins overhead.