i may not be irish ...

... but I'm feeling pretty lucky.

We're back from Austin.  It was such a whirlwind trip:  I flew up to Austin on Friday morning, in time to do my SXSW panel on Friday afternoon...

... which, if I do say so myself, went well -- but with a title like "8 Ways to Deal With Bastards," and  co-panelists like Bryan Mason, Jason Shellen and LoriMcLeese, I wasn't particularly worried.  Seriously, these are some pretty impressive folks, the kind who make you realize you're learning a lot just being in their airspace.  But more importantly, the funny, man -- they know how to bring the funny.  It was a such good time.

So after the panel and spending some time in the city, Laura Mayes and I went back to the airport to pick up Laurie Smithwick and head to Laura's new home in the country for the night.  This place was breathtaking:  I woke up to blue skies and walls that were completely golden from the rising sun, and then an hour later I was sipping coffee with Laura and Laurie on a bona fide country house verandah.  So beautiful.

The lovely Laurie.

Then it was back into the city for some more SXSW-ing, then Marcus and Alex, who drove in from Houston, picked me up downtown, and we drove out to our favourite cabins ... but I'm getting ahead of myself.  After all, I need to save some photos for a later post!

The upshot is, however, that we had an amazing weekend, mostly because the weekend was just lazy.  We did whatever we wanted, which, while it included a very Austin-esque party held at a cowboy boot store in town, also meant lots and lots of watching DVDs from bed.  And naps.  An obscene number of naps.

So anyway, now we're back in Houston.  And while I feel like there's a ton of stuff that I need to get done this week after all this wonton loafing, I'm illogically feeling pretty good about doing it all, and I'm feeling really happy about life in general.  Lucky, even.

And on that note, Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone.

Song:  I wanna be a cowboy, by Boys Don't Cry.  As Laura was driving me back into town from her house, we stopped at the one stop light in her tiny country town, and this song came on the radio.  Of course.