Elliot and I left the house this morning at 4:20am, and by mid-afternoon we were shucking corn in Dan’s backyard here in Austin. Well, I wasn’t shucking corn, but I kept them company while they did it. It’s great to see Dan; we get to see him far too infrequently these days. :( And because of that, I had some guilt over leaving his place this evening (with Andy Biggs and his wife Leslie) to hear Vienna Teng sing at the Cactus Club at the U.T… but I’m glad I went. She was amazing, and sang one of the best shows I’ve heard her sing. The acoustics were good, and she clearly was enjoying herself on stage. I get to hear sing fairly often, but each time I still think, “Damn, she’s good.” The audience was quiet — but responsive — and they sang with perfect intonation to Soon Love Soon, which requires audience participation. It was quite impressive, and even Vienna could hardly contain her excitement on stage. At the show, I bumped into a bunch of Stanford CS/Trilogy people: Toli, his wife Christine, and … one other person, whose name I cannot remember. I do remember, however, that he was in the class of ‘95 and went to Trilogy, so that puts him squarely in the middle of a lot of people I know. Toli, Christine, Vienna and I went to Kerby Lane (the “real” Kerby Lane, they called it) afterwards for a bite to eat, and it was just as I remembered it, even though I’ve only eaten there once since living here in Austin during the summer of ‘96.

Before the show, I spent some time with Andy and Leslie for a Tex-Mex dinner. I chat with Andy over IM almost every day and have spoken with him on the telephone, but it was my first time meeting the two of them in person. Our virtual friendship has now very naturally carried itself over into real life. It’s nice when things work out. :) Oh, and you should check out his photography. He’s good.

UPDATE [see some photos] [photos from dan]