New Year's Eve

Thursday we New Year's Eve, and we started the day by going to the Alamo Drafthouse - it's a movie theater where every other row of seats was removed and replaced with tables, so you can order food during the movie (and they serve beer, too). The model has spread around the U.S., but the Austin location is the original. We saw Avatar in 3D (the second time I'd seen it.) I had some hot wings and a burger with my movie. Everyone enjoyed the movie (though to varying degrees) - Neera mentioned that it's kind of like Pocahontas, but blue, which is fairly accurate.

From there, we went to the flagship Whole Foods store - it's something like 17,000 square feet of Whole Foods grocery store. We got some champagne for that night, some wine and cheese, breakfast foods, and other snacks.

After the groceries were put away at home, we checked out a parade that was going right near our house. It was a little odd and pretty short, so when it was done we had free time before dinner.

There was a blue moon on New Year's Eve (the second full moon in a calendar month) - and it looked pretty cool with all the clouds.

It was getting pretty chilly, so we stopped for a drink on the way to the restaurant.

The bar was off the beaten path and had a cute pub-like atmosphere. It was called the Ginger Man Bar.

We had Thai food for dinner - the restaurant was excellent, though I'm blanking on the name at the moment. I had some great mushroom and tofu soup in spicy coconut sauce. After Thai, we stopped home for wine and cheese (and coffee).

Around 11:15 we walked across the Colorado River to see some live music and fireworks, which were being set off over the river as part of Austin's New Year's festival.

The fireworks were good and went on a long time.

After fireworks, we went home, had some champagne, and ended up chatting about everything from science education, to health care, to movies until about four in the morning. It was a great way to start the new year.