Community Blog

It’s time for a pool party, Remington residents!

Tomorrow (Saturday) noon to 3pm. Be there.

If the pool and exquisite company of your Remington staff and your Remington neighbors weren’t enough, how about this? Free barbecue! T-shirts! Towels! Beach balls! Free iPads! (That’s a joke. No free iPads.) And snow cones!

We said SNOW CONES! It ain’t summer without snow cones.

It’ll be a lot more fun if you’re there. Please come.

Photo used under Creative Commons from Joe Shlabonik.

Summer is drawing near an end, and next thing you know the leaves of Fall will begin changing colors.  But before the school bells ring, here is an idea: Fly, drive or even bike up to the Jersey Shore!

If you are looking for an end of summer trip, this is the perfect getaway.  Beefcakes, beauties, beaches and beautiful scenery can be found in Atlantic City, NJ.  Sure there are tons of beaches around the Texas area, but if you really want to live it up, go ‘BIG’ or go Jersey!  While you are in the comforts of your weekend hotel or beachfront rental, there are endless options of things you could partake in.

Besides your standard G.T.L.(thanks Pauly D. ), you can catch some “freakish” sights at Ripley’s or if you are feeling lucky as “The Donald”, you can hit the many Casinos along the strip and see if you can become as rich as the Monopoly Man! I mean, the board game was modeled after Atlantic City!

So pack your swimsuits, tanning lotions, & some Texas Toast. And please, don’t forget, once you pass Go, collect your $200!

Residents of the Remington, we have some important news and an important clarification.

You might have noticed in the right-hand column on our community blog a colorful and friendly on-line version of our July calendar of events. You can check it at work. Or you don’t have to get up from your computer at home and check the copy you stuck on the refrigerator.

You will see that this Wednesday is Macaroni Day. We’re not sure why. But it is, so we have to celebrate. Ja?

So, on Wednesday, stop by the office for– some macaroni. Free macaroni. No charge. We’re just giving it away.

Pretty awesome, huh?

Now for the clarification. On the calendar is says “Free Mac at the front office!”

That’s macaroni. We’re not giving away free Macs. We’re sorry if there was any confusion.

(Macaroni photo: Some rights reserved, D. Sharon Pruitt; Mac photo: Some rights reserved, Richard Thomas)

Do not fear, dear Remingtonians. The rain should blow through by Sunday, and other than some possible showers on Saturday, the Fourth of July Weekend should be pretty nice, and a lot cooler than it’s been.

We hope you have a three-day weekend. We know you deserve it.

And speaking of having some time off, the office will be closed Sunday. We’re going to take the day off on July 4th so we can spend the time with our friends and families, and maybe catch some fireworks.

We’ll be back on Monday, regular hours.

Whether you have big plans for the Fourth, or you plan just to hang out by the pool all weekend, have a great weekend!

(Photo: Some rights reserved, Michael Johnson)

This year, the big Austin Fourth of July celebrations are coming down to the choice of north of the lake or south of Town Lake.

South side of Town Lake

The Austin Symphony will continue its tradition of presenting a concert of patriotic music under the stars at Auditorium Shores. The concert caps off with a rousing performance of the always crowd pleasing 1812 Overture (with real cannon!), followed by fireworks over Town Lake.

The music begins at 8:30 Sunday night, with the fireworks starting at about 9:30. But get there early to get a good listening and viewing spot on the grass.

For more information, including parking suggestions, go to the Austin Symphony website.

North side of Town Lake

In contrast to the symphonic music and grassy lawn at Auditorium Shores, the Seaholm Power Plant will offer the funky sounds of T Bird and the Breaks, the Bright Light Social Hour and Til We’re Blue or Destroy.

It’s the first Fourth of July Celebration at Seaholm Power Plant.

You’ll be able to purchase Tex-Mex food and barbecue other tasty food. And perhaps best of all, the site is reportedly a good spot to see the fireworks over Town Lake.

Admission is free, but organizers hope you’ll make a donation to Anthropos Arts, a non-profit organization that runs music education programs for low-income kids.

(Photo: Some rights reserved, Dan Jones)

I like finding unique things online and this morning I came across Happy Socks, a fashionable sock company. What caught my eye about the company is their full line up of brightly-colored socks.

Happy Socks has also gotten into the fever of the World Cup with their latest line up of colorful socks sporting colors for a handful of countries.

The company has an amazing line up of socks to suite your personality for just about every day of the year. From striped, to polka-dotted, from knee high, to low cut, Happy Socks has them all. They also have a selection of  solid color socks. I especially like their Odd Couple line of inverted matching socks.

These will be great conversation starters.

(Photo: Some Rights Reserved, Jason Rogers)

Remember how recently we transformed the pool here at the Remington into a cinema? That was pretty cool, huh?

We’ll be doing the cinema thing again, only the transformation won’t be quite as  magical.

It’s our regularly scheduled First Thursday Movie Night. It’s this week, on Thursday coincidentally.

We’ll be showing The Book of Eli, starring Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman. It’s a post-apocalyptic adventure in which a mysterious drifter risks his life on a mission to deliver a book that holds the key to reviving civilization. Many critics have praised the film for its spiritual subject matter.  It was rated R when it showed in cinemas for some coarse language and some violence.

We’ll be showing it in the Clubhouse Thursday at 6:30. We’ll provide the popcorn and drinks. We’d love to see you there.

Here at the Remington we have a terrific swimming pool. It’s lots of fun to splash around in or to lounge beside on a sunny day.

But it’s not just a pool. We here at the Remington can transform it into a an outdoor cinema. The way we do it is magic.

Which is sort of like how a house can fly just by attaching a bunch of balloons to it. But apparently this can happen, as shown in the Disney/Pixar movie Up.

And, what a coincidence! Up just happens to be the film we’ll be showing this Friday evening by the pool.

We’ll have pizza, popcorn and soda for you. But please bring a chair or a blanket. That’s Friday evening, June 18. The show starts at 8:15.

Hey Remington folk, we have some good news and some, well, not bad news… it’s just a heads up.

First the heads up: Tomorrow, June 10, the office here at the Remington will close a bit early, at 4:30pm. See, it’s the night of the Austin Apartment Association annual awards, and we’d like some time to change into our ball gowns and tiaras before heading to the dinner.

We hope you don’t mind. But, it’s business as usual on Thursday.

Now for the good news.

Tomorrow is ALSO  Sweet Tea Day at the Remington. Stop by the office for a glass of sweet tea. It’s the perfect treat for a hot day– while supplies last. It’s just to show you that we love you, and thank you for living at the Remington.

See you tomorrow. Come thirsty.

(Photo courtesy Craig Allen)

Sometimes we all have to put in some extra time at work. But too much of that can have a bad effect on your health. Medical science has the data to prove it.

A recent article on WebMD describes a study in the UK that followed British civil servants for about ten years. The subjects who worked three or more hours of overtime a day showed a 60% increase in heart related problems.

One researcher says these subjects showed more “Type A behavior traits like aggression, hostility, competitiveness, psychological distress, and sleep problems.”

There may be a chicken-and-egg issue here:  maybe these people started with competitive, aggressive personalities that made them to work long hours. But maybe their perceived need to work long hours made them more hostile and psychologically distressed.

But in either case, the message is clear– we need to keep our lives in balance.

(Photo: Some rights reserved, Sam Greenhalgh)

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