February 12, 2005

A quick run to the heart of Texas

I took a quick trip to the capitol of Texas, Austin, this week. Austin's a pretty busy place. A lot of high tech companies in the area. I was told it's the new "silicon valley", probably because the land is real cheap and the government is doing a fine job of enticing businesses. And they are building infrastructure like crazy! It seemed like everywhere we went (and we covered Austin north, south, east, and west), there was new freeway building going on, along with a great deal of overpasses and over-overpasses. It was strange to see small forests of spindly looking concrete pillars ready to hold hundreds of tons of concrete and steel... in some cases the overpasses were partially complete, the roadway heading up, up, up, until suddenly there was no more road, just a shear drop hundreds of feet straight down. It reminded me of a roller coaster gone haywire...

The weather was decent at the time we went, very much like the Sacramento valley. Austin is fairly close to the Gulf of Mexico however, so they do have a monsoon season where they get tons of rain all at once in short bursts. I've been caught in one of these storms more than once when I've traveled to Texas in the past, and it is pretty wild. The amount of rain that comes out of the skies is unbelievable. The thunder and lightning that comes along with it is awesome.

The food we got at the restaraunts was quite good too. Not surprisingly, many Texas restaraunts specialize in beef. And often there's a Mexican influence on the food as well. So there are several places that offer really spicy beef dishes. The one place we had a chance to go was the Texas Land and Cattle steakhouse. Wow! Excellent sirloin, with a real nice spice to it. Cajun shrimp, with a Chipotle topping. Very good dinner! Oh, and the dessert was simply awesome! Jack Daniels chocolate chip cookie dough filling up a shallow dish, with a HUGE dollop of vanilla ice cream. Wowsie!! I think it's a chain, so if you ever happen to go to, or pass through, Texas, try to find one of these steakhouses. It'll be well worth your effort.

Flights were fairly painless... We took Southwest and since they've got on-line checkin now, it's so much nicer than before. Southwest does not assign seats; rather, you find your own once you get on the plane. It used to be that I'd have to arrive at the airport extremely early and then wait in line forever if I wanted to be in the first group of folks to get on the airplane to get a choice seat. If I showed up late, I'd be relegated to the left over seats, and invariably I'd end up between two rather large passengers. Now, it's possible to login any time after midnight on the day of the flight to "check in" and print out a boarding pass. That completely avoids the whole check in procedure (and the associated waiting in line) at the airport and allows me to walk straight to the security entrance and then to the gate. Very nice; I think I can live with this "on line" thing!

Should be back home near about midnight... I'm writing this on the flight home... I'm looking forward to being back in my own bed in my own house with my own family again... funny how even just two days away make me miss all that so much!

Oh, by the way... the meeting with the customer went beautifully... since they had experience with us before, they are very eager to work with us now. I enjoy meetings like this very much!

Posted by Michael at 08:33 PM | Comments (0) | Business | Travel

January 24, 2005

New category for my Europe Trip 2005

Well, I admit that no plans are firm yet. This year is the year; that is my hope. I was due for my 8 week sabbatical last year. I have until the end of next year (2006) to take it. And I am hoping it will be this year.

It has been a dream of mine, for some time now, to travel to Europe with my motorcycle in order to visit family and tour the countryside. While there, I would share experiences and pictures via this blog, provided that works out. In order to keep track of the planning prior to, and the experience during, I've created a new category on my blog called EuroTrip2005. If things work out, it'll have a lot of entries; if they don't, well... I don't want to go there yet...

Posted by Michael at 12:07 AM | Comments (0) | EuroTrip2005 | Motorcycles | Travel