Evidence-Based Design

Unemployment’s not so bad yet. There are advantages to operating on a different schedule than the rest of the world — finally completing old hobby projects that’d fallen by the wayside, having the gym to yourself, grocery shopping on weekday afternoons. The other nice thing is that I can leave town without worrying about what I’m missing at work.

My spouse and I just got back from a fine extended weekend in Houston and Galveston, a trip that was planned and paid before before this whole business.

On Friday, we went to see the Diamondbacks destroy the Astros. I kept score with one of those worksheets they sell in the ballpark store. It didn’t come with instructions, so we had to go by the husband’s faint memories. “So you’re sure I’m not supposed to write that down?” “Which position number is that guy again?” On the bright side, we were blessed with excellent color commentary by the drunk Southerners behind us.

After the game, there was a Guitar Hero 3 competition. (Sadly, the drunk rednecks left.)

On Saturday, we went to see Nine Inch Nails at the local basketball stadium. I normally prefer general admission — it doesn’t really feel like you’re at a show if you’re not getting pushed around and sweated on and kicked in the head up front — but we had pretty good seats, and it meant we got to see the whole light show, which was awesome.

The next day, we moved on to Galveston. About the most exciting thing we did was wait in line for a very long time to take a ferry on the advice of a stupid book.

But there were dolphins on the way back. The weather and water look different in this picture because it was LIKE THREE HOURS LATER.

And then we went to the “beach.”

Another day of driving, and we’re home now. Time to get back to work, so to speak.