No, I would not like any spicy food today.

Another crazy weekend here in Austin. SXSW is now in full swing, the Women's NCAA Tournament begins this weekend with a regional in Austin, and tomorrow is St. Patty's Day! Big shout out to the guys who live St. Patty's Day everyday - the Cooney boys. You nutty Irishmen!

I started my weekend last night, which is unusual for me. I don't usually do evening social kinda stuff during the week unless it's just going over to V's house to hang out or something. Usually when I'm not around during the week, it's because I'm working. But last night, some friends and I took advantage of a SXSW freebie - or actually, it wasn't an official SXSW thing, but it was several bands putting on a free concert in the downtown area while SXSW is going on, so call it what you will. They called it the 1st annual Austin Stars' Under The Stars Showcase. It was "under the stars" because the venue is an open-air ampitheater kind of thing. The important thing to note is that one of the SIX bands that played last night was...Mingo Fishtrap!!! Free Mingo!!!

The other bands were Derrick Davis (we enjoyed his set very much), Ady Hernandez (I was talking during this one and didn't really notice his music), Overlord (formerly known as MC Overlord - we all enjoyed his set, which was rap but with other elements mixed in that made it really fun to listen to), Mingo, James Speer Band (we also liked this one), and Vallejo. Now, I love Vallejo, but they didn't come on until 11pm, and that was too late for us pumpkins with jobs, so we missed their set. But I've convinced my friends that we need to go a show of theirs sometime. They're awesome.

I got home tired and feeling a little bit of heartburn, but I forgot to take something before going to bed, so I woke up at 1:30, feeling the entire length of my esophagus into my stomach on fire. So, I took some Pepto and Tums - double-up I say. At 2:30, I woke to find that this had done absolutely nothing. So, I took more Tums. What else can you do?

It seemed like that was finally causing the burning to subside, when my stomach got into the act. I won't give you all the particulars, but it involved my stomach revolting against either the Mexican food we'd eaten at the show or the margaritas I drank, but I only had 3 in 6.5 hours, so I don't really think it was the margs. It has continued all morning, forcing me to stay home today. I can barely tolerate the situation here at home - doing it at the office was unthinkable. I am now of the opinion that was it was definitely the food. I got a hold of something bad - maybe some beans kept at the wrong temperature or whatever. It is unpleasant.

I think it's the universe punishing me because I called Matt from the concert and left some of the music on his voice mail - just to give him a hard time for never moving here. "Listen to the awesome free music here in Austin!" See what happens when you act shitty? It comes right back atcha, baby. Matt, any chance you'd consider calling off the karma dogs now? I'd like to be back in form for tomorrow night's festivities.