We had a beautiful afternoon yesterday for our monthly shoot at the now misnamed Tiniest Bar in Texas. A huge improvement from our last shoot, when we shivered our way through three hours of talking to ourselves at the outdoor venue while all of Austin’s sensible parents snuggled with their children in warm homes.

As usual, we showed up at about 3pm to get the gear setup. That is, Troy, Don and John get the gear set up. We use two cameras, a boom with two mics on it and three lights. Brad and I are in charge of getting the buffet set up, and getting the bar tab open. Our goal is to get four episodes in the can at each shoot, so we start with all four intros and outros. This can be kind of tricky because we have to get all the sponsor and giveaway info right. We’ve (uh, I’ve) screwed this up in the past, and that’s not a good thing.

Then the DadLabs guys take some time to discuss the questions among ourselves. By about 5pm or so, we start calling up the parents who have come out for the event. We REALLY appreciate those cool parents that come downtown for the event. So, these super cool parents come up one at a time, some bring their kids with them, some come solo, and answer all four questions. It takes a couple of hours to get through everybody, so Brad is pretty hosed by the end.

I drink only club soda with food coloring to look like beer. It’s a really fun way for us to get a bunch of shows and have a good time with Austin parents. We are looking for some ways to tweak the event to make it even more fun and kid friendly. We might be looking at a change in venue to a place with a playscape, and/or bringing in even more “experts” to give a more serious take on the quesitons. We’d also love to hit the road, so if you are a fan, have a network of parents that would be willing to subject themselves to being on DadLabs, and live in Texas, let us know and we’ll bring the Lounge to your town. If you have any other ideas about how we might tweak The Lounge, please comment here or let me know.