This rainy summer is something else. Mrs. Coda and I had been planning on spending more time enjoying the outdoors this summer, but we've been in a neverending rain delay through June and July. We have managed to make it out to a couple of natural swimmin' holes in the area and hit the neighborhood tennis courts twice. But mostly, we've been stuck inside watching movies.

There is one upside to all of this rainy weather: it's late July, and the temperature has not yet reached 100 degrees.

One of the few highlights of the summer has been my summer Tour de Pizza. A few coworkers and I have been on a mission to find the best pizza in Austin, visiting one place each week. We've toured six places [or is it seven?], and we have too many more to go. Less than half way through our journey, I think we may have already hit four of the top 5 places. When I moved to Austin 8 or so years ago, there were scarcely any good pizza places within the Austin city limits. Sure, there's always been the good-when-you're-drunk places downtown like Hoek's [aka Death Metal Pizza] and Roppolo's. Now we have serious options for civilized pizza dining. It's going to be hard for me to pick a favorite.

Sadly, I learned recently that Hoek's closed down due to the renovation of the old Ritz theater to house the new downtown location of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. R.I.P. Hoek's. I will spin some Slayer in your honor.

Oh yeah. The movies. I've actually been to the South Lamar Alamo Drafthouse to see a few movies this summer: Hot Fuzz and Knocked Up - good; Transformers - bad. Transformers' suckitude was not surprising, but it was still disappointing. What more can you expect from Michael Bay? Big screen action for the Deuce Bigalow set. That said, I'm looking forward to promising stupid fun of Superbad. And The Simpsons Movie opens tomorrow. Even though I don't watch The Simpson's regularly these days, I still consider it my all-time favorite show. I feel compelled to watch the movie.

While I'm talking about cartoons, I must give a nod to The Venture Brothers. It's pretty damn good. And it's the first Adult Swim cartoon that the Mrs. and I both like. We almost watched the whole Season 1 DVD in one sitting--couldn't get enough. Check it out.

That's all for now.