AUSTIN, Texas, October 19, 2005 — I woke up dreaming of flooding.

I made it to water aerobics. Have I mentioned that I don't really consider it a workout? I did forty minutes on the recumbent bike after that and some leg extensions.

This should be my perfect life. Get up. Coffee. Workout. Play with my 'creative' pursuits. (I ordered some prints of travel photos and ordered a flip book with pictures for my friend Mags.) Then tonight the title of the fundraiser says it all: Film and Food.

I feel a little lost and disconnected, though. As

if I'm not present in my own life.

I got some photos printed today. I just took them off my SNAPFISH account and had them printed at Walgreen's. I got some to send to South Africa, too. I also had SNAPFISH print up a little bound book of prints for Mags.

We went downtown pretty early. We got our badges for the film festival. We stopped in the Men's store Keepers downtown and talked to the guys. We had a coffee at Hideout and then went to a reception for the capital campaign we are working on. We Went from there to the Paramount for the film part of film and food. They showed us a film called Tennis, Anyone? This movie seemed to want to be Sideways with tennis substituted for wine. They even broke the slightly saner buddy's nose. I thought it was enjoyable especially if you liked tennis. But it's lightweight. And I don't think that people are going to embrace it and run out and buy new composite rackets like they did Pinot Noir. I'm just saying.

The party after at the Driskill (this whole thing benefits a young filmmakers program) had food and lots of drink. Sterling wines, Bombay martinis (Gin. Dangerous.) and Dos Equis. The food was provided by various restaurants. Hoover's had some good chili and there were delicoius lamb chops from Austin Land and Cattle. Offerings from some of the usual suspects were good, too, not surprisingly. (Starlite, Roaring Fork, the Driskill). We saw lots of people we knew, enjoyed visiting with people. Food movies like Big Night were playing on some screens around.

Tomorrow the film fest begins in earnest. Tune in the eyeballs.