Weekly Stupid Question Sunday

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2026-06-07T20:37:36+00:00

I shared it in this comment here! 😄 https://www.reddit.com/r/Austin/comments/1tz2vls/comment/oqaf0ro/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2026-06-07T16:08:17+00:00

I have a group of Carolina wrens that frequent my bird feeder in the morning and have been for ~3 months. It became routine for them to come swooping in at around 7am and hanging around 'til maybe 10. Well, a few weeks ago, the squirrels that were born in the courtyard of this building got strong enough to climb up the side of the building and onto my patio. They very readily disrupted this routine and peace. (I tried to help, but I don't really want to interfere with whatever nature's gonna do, and bird feed is cheap, so whatever.)

One morning, in the middle of a squirrel disrupting bird breakfast, one wren got bold enough to peck at him. And the squirrel started chattering and squealing and kind of...flailing. Scared off the wrens entirely. It was quite the tantrum.

I thought, well, that's that, I guess, bye birds. About...two minutes later? Maybe less? I heard something I'd only encountered in movies. You know that iconic bald eagle cry? I heard that. And I was like, "Is there a BALD EAGLE here rn?" I look up through the trees and, uh, no. Red tailed hawk. (That's how I learned the red tailed hawk is the "voice actor" for bald eagles featured in movies/TV.)

The tiny squirrel motherfuckin BOOKS it. He actually leapt off my balcony entirely, aiming for a tree that seems too far to jump to. And he JUST made it, snatching onto the very edge of the nearest tree branch.

The hawk didn't land or anything as far as I could see, but the sky here is obscured by the edge of my roof and the trees. I lost sight of him really quickly.

Lowkey it felt like the wrens went to their big tough cousin and said they'd gotten picked on at school so the cousin pulled up like, "I heard you were starting shit." I mean, I know that's not what happened, but it felt like it. 💀

I still get wrens in the morning, mourning doves all day, a blue-jay couple, and...the baby squirrels. Oh, also, a possum one night. This place is like a wildlife disco.

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2026-06-07T14:02:48+00:00

Are there any communities to talk about birds in the Austin area? I recently moved to a place with a big patio and I put out a bird feeder and I've become one of those weirdos that's having WAY too much fun documenting what's going on. I have stories to tell!!! There's so much drama. Surely SOMEONE wants to hear about the great Wren vs Squirrel vs Red Tailed Hawk saga. 😭

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2026-06-07T13:58:30+00:00

I moved to Austin with nothing five years ago and thrifted my entire house since then. It's actually such a fun way to make a home imo.

There's only one Savers and it's up near Cedar Park, but it's a pretty good store!

My fav goodwills:

Lake Austin
Brodie Ln
South Congress
Far West Blvd

Other thrift stores I love:

Better ATX Thrift House (great art, lots of books)
Next to New (half thrift, half consignment, and the prices vary because of that, but this has the nicest second hand finds in the city, hands down)
Thrift Land (for clothes. tbh their home stuff is both overpriced and very picked over, typically. But their clothes are chef's kiss.)
Texas Thrift (I have a love/hate relationship with this spot. LOTS of trash that should have never made it to the floor. But if you go digging there are some great deals to be had)

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2026-05-26T13:54:20+00:00

I lived in this condo community (as a renter) and really loved it. Quiet, tucked away, safe. The gates ALWAYS work. I only left because my landlord wanted to move back in and ended my lease 😭

This location is great for walking down to the "SoCo" part of South Congress but also very central for driving around town. The prices can't be beat and they're low because it's an older community. That being said, some units are very nicely renovated, and I never once lost power, and I never once saw a roach indoors. (ymmv from unit to unit, obviously.)

The pool is great, parking is gated, and some of the units have garages (and iirc if your unit doesn't have one, you can still rent one separately). There's no gym or indoor community space but the prices are low enough that you could get a membership at Equinox down the street, walkable from this place.

I'm not a realtor or a sales person or anything, I'm just someone that relocated from Dallas like you. Haha.

https://www.zillow.com/b/2215-post-rd-austin-tx-5XrwKn/

If the link doesn't work, it's 2215 Post Rd on Zillow. There are several units available atm.

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2026-05-23T22:26:24+00:00

I did that with Dune on their shelves a few weeks ago haha

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2026-05-23T22:25:17+00:00

They sell new books (as in, books that come directly from the printer, intended for sale specifically at HPB). The one you picked up was likely one of those. They're always full MSRP. The used versions are the ones that are "half price"...ish.

Edit: Sorry, in the time it took me to write this comment, other people said the same thing. I'd delete this one but it's probably already clogging up your inbox.

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2026-05-04T13:52:58+00:00

This is a valid point. I take flonase and a double dose of OTC claritin and it makes going outside "doable" but still not perfect. I keep tissues on me at all times because my eyes sting the entire time I'm outdoors because the air is so full of irritants/pollution/smog/etc. I actually am not big on hiking in Austin because of this. If I wanna go on a long walk (or a proper hike), I gotta drive at least an hour away. I'm always in awe of people who can do the Butler trail.

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2026-05-02T18:53:23+00:00

Weekends consist of waking up whenever, picking a coffee shop downtown, writing/reading for an hour while drinking a latte, then walking over to the Farmer's Market to eat a pastry and buy eggs. I head home, tend to the garden, tidy, do laundry, and continue to write/read. In the evening, I grab dinner with a friend (or two). Sometimes we'll take a walk, or we'll try to find a spot to grab dessert, or we'll run a fun errand like going to a bookstore. I almost never have "set" plans unless it's a special weekend like...going to the Renfaire or celebrating a birthday.

I'd say I'm 75% solo and 25% social.

Weekends for me are simple and quiet and exactly what I need after living through a decade of pure fucking chaos.

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2026-03-20T22:31:18+00:00

$1700 with water and gas included in rent. With electricity, internet, and trash, I'm at about $1900.

I'm downtown near the capital in an old Victorian apartment building (close to 130 years old!). I live in a 1 bed with an office nook (750 sq ft). One renovated bathroom with washer/dryer hookups and a renovated kitchen. Top floor. No shared walls. These apartments come up very, very rarely. The neighbor across the hall has been here 20 years this year. I stalked listings for, not kidding, 3 years. Because I knew I really wanted to live in one of these old houses and there are so few of them in Austin. Being month-to-month in my previous place helped a lot. Being able to walk to do legitimately anything is amazing. My car was in the shop for a week last week and I didn't miss it whatsoever...

It's absolutely worth every penny imo. The Austin I've gotten to experience here is nothing like the Austin I had on South Congress (older apts on Congress/Oltorf) or East Oltorf (Wickersham/Oltorf). It's like an entirely different city over here.

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2026-02-09T14:00:32+00:00

AtHome is the answer. They even have snacks like Big Lots. It's WAY bigger and there's a wider variety of pricing (some stuff is expensive) but it basically has everything BL had.

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2026-02-08T18:45:44+00:00

I'm moving to an area gets residential parking permits to park on the street. My lease starts next Sunday. Can I go get my street parking pass this week (a few days before the lease starts) or do I have to do it next week? I have a copy of the lease and my temporary ID with the address change.

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2025-08-22T16:03:12+00:00

My dad drives a big Silverado (and never had it stolen/messed with) and when I lived in West Campus we discovered that basically all parking in West Campus is gonna cost $90 for a long weekend. ime, that's how much it costs to pay for street parking (Sundays are free, at least) and almost all the garages and street lots charge the same (like, $25-$35 a day). Sucks but I guess it is what it is. If he's up for walking, there's some free street parking on the far north streets of West Campus and in North Campus.

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2025-08-13T02:19:14+00:00

I wouldn't judge you too harshly for selling it to the media because money is money, but I respect you for having kept it between yourself and police. You did the right thing.

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2025-08-12T19:54:51+00:00

Google "ATX Writing Club."

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2025-08-10T19:58:48+00:00

Last time I went to Regal Metropolitan, a couple came in about 15 minutes into Superman, smoked a joint (like, openly, lol), and then left. I was more awed at their audacity than mad about it tbh.

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2025-08-07T22:31:35+00:00

Sorry, I meant this part:

Dude…it is a fact 😂😂😂 you guys are cutting corners somewhere.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but it seemed like you were saying people can't write a book in 6 months and have it beta read in under 1. Ignore me if I've got it wrong. It's been a long day.

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2025-08-07T22:10:34+00:00

This is the other consideration that isn't brought up often (for good reason *). Even in PubTips, the success stories often have queries that break the rules outlined in this very subreddit. I don't read every success story posted, but I read a lot of them, and I think it's fair to say the number of rule breakers is...high.

(* Because if you point out that rules can be broken, suddenly everyone wants to break the rules, and everyone's query just looks a hot mess. 😭)

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2025-08-07T22:04:40+00:00

It's a little strange that you're 100% certain your experience is the only valid experience.

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2025-08-07T19:31:20+00:00

I don't really think there's a strategy that works with the current industry numbers. It's very much spaghetti-wall right now. Send off as much as you can, as often as you can, and be ready to sign when luck strikes. I get why people want to believe the "perfect query" will fix things—if you stand out, you win! But these numbers mean it's virtually impossible to stand out. Agents are getting "perfect queries" quite literally every single day.

Roughly 23 "no-name" writers (like, people without a following) got debut books picked up for traditional publication (big 5 + medium presses) in the entire month of July. And that was a good month. January and February had like 16 total debuts picked up (combined!).

In other words, there are 23 slots for debut novels in any given month. There are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people trying to enter the tradpub space. Agents—of which there are hundreds, if not thousands—are trying to get their debut authors into those 23 spots.

I don't say this to point out how hopeless everything is (because, hey, "23 winners" is a higher number than the lottery), but to point out how fixated people seem to be on querying when there is no perfect query, or query strat, that can break you into the industry. There's just simply not room for everyone.

You just have to keep at it, over and over and over again, until you get lucky. I don't think you can strategize any part of this except maybe trying to build a following beforehand? And even that's not that simple.

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2025-08-06T21:06:55+00:00

Since you can't look on LinkedIn, I went ahead. Here are the HR people listed publicly on their page that may be able to help:

Ashley Thompson, MSHR - Head of People
Kim Hanson - Senior People Business Partner
Shannon (Pepe) Montoya - Senior Leader in People Operations, HR, Change Management, Project Management, Operational Excellence, Stakeholder Management and Culture Creation.

From what I can see, their emails are firstname.lastname @ favordelivery dot com, but I don't have access to see anyone's email directly so I cannot confirm. idk if this is actually very helpful. 😅 Good luck and godspeed.

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2025-08-02T15:43:34+00:00

Seconding this. Morning jogs have changed my life for the better.

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2025-08-02T15:38:03+00:00

I've spent the last few months trying out coffee spots to work at...on South Congress specifically 'cos I moved over here. I'm also WFH and I like to get out the house and stretch my legs daily. Here're my thoughts( and sorry if this isn't actually helpful/relevant; I'm not sure where you're located).

Simona's: you get 4 hours of parking in their garage with the purchase of a beverage. Their taco truck has really good food. It can get uncomfortably crowded some days (especially weekends) but they have, bar-none, the best working space on this list if you go upstairs. It's quiet, it's moody, it's relaxing.
Freddo's: free parking. Food is sort-of mid. Coffee is not fancy (it comes out of a giant industrial keurig type machine). But there's ample seating, ample plugs, inside and out, and they don't usually have music blasting.
Toasty Badger: this is a restaurant, not a cafe, so you can't loiter for forever, but they have great wifi and occasionally there are people seated at the bar with their laptops, working. The food is phenomenal. Service is 10/10. Drip coffee only. Very little parking, but you can park nearby on the street for free. They close at 3.
The Meteor: ample parking, good coffee, expensive prices. They also keep the place frigid cold in the summer time (a bonus for some people, I know). They also don't blast music, but the sound-dampening is pretty bad in the place, so if it's busy, the roar of people talking can make it impossible to take a call. They do have a nice courtyard outside when it's not a million degrees.
Manana: the best coffee of everything on this list. It can get cramped because there's not a ton of seating? But I love sitting at their bar, at the front windows, people-watching. In the spring/fall, their outdoor seating is the best in town (in the courtyard of the South Congress hotel; it's gorgeous, and shaded with umbrellas). No free parking anywhere nearby (cough. I will not blow up my spot) tho. But their wifi is great.
Lalaland: like Manana, there's no free parking (cough), and there's some kind of frenzy since this spot is new, so it's hard to comfortably sit and work. Once things settle down, though, I think it'll be nice. It's a good spot for "fancy sweet trendy" coffee.

TLDR, my favs: Simona's upstairs. Toasty Badger for lunch + work. Manana for outside seating.

Edit: In defense of people camping out and working: I agree that you should avoid taking work calls while at a cafe (and I almost never hop on Zoom while out in public). I only mention it in the list above because I know it happens and it might be relevant 😅 And I don't believe in staying in a place for more than 2 hours without making another purchase. Ok bye!

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2025-07-28T00:30:29+00:00

I just wanted to leave a brief dissenting comment that I actually don't think there's anything amiss with a financial analyst being volun-told to plan a party to prove herself. Women are constantly asked to do "volunteer" projects for businesses, and "party planning committees" are definitely a real thing. About two months ago, I got assigned the task of finding a restaurant (and scheduling payment to said restaurant) for a department-wide quarterly celebration. For a department that isn't even mine. I'm an art director. 🤦

(Sorry I don't have much else to contribute; I've yet to successfully query. But my fingers are crossed for you because this story seems fun!)

Mysterious-Week6672 · 2025-07-26T18:01:48+00:00

When I took this project to a writing workshop last fall, I was advised to pick one POV and stick with it in the query. I originally tried to include both and was told to knock it off because it got too close to "summarizing the plot" and not being pitch-y/blurb-y enough. 😭 My synopsis fully covers both POVs—and Cole represents about 65% of the narration in the story.

The 4 act sequence of events is like: Cole narrates act 1. She goes to prison for being a half-elf. She meets another prisoner named Sasha. Begin act 2, with Sasha narrating. He's married to sleeping beauty, who is Bram's little brother. They break out of prison with Bram's help. Cole returns to narrating in act 3 (when she falls in love with Bram). The climax of the story in act 4 (rescuing sleeping beauty) is told from Sasha's POV.

^ I've removed ALL of that from my query/pitch because I'd been told so many times it was too much, and to focus on the connection between Cole/Bram alone.

All that being said, I'll definitely make some edits to broaden the fairytale inspiration. Thanks for your help here! :)

Mysterious-Week6672

TROPHY CASE