Yeeeeehaw!

I have been a bit remiss with my blog posting lately. I apologize. I will attempt to quickly catch you up on all that's been happening.

A couple weeks ago, I went on my first ever business trip... to Austin, TX. I never thought I would spend any length of time in Texas. And you know what? It wasn't half bad. Of course, whenever I mention Austin in conversation, the other party is always compelled to express that Austin is much better than other parts of Texas. And you know what? It seems quite likely. It's kind of like when you tell someone a family member has been sent to Afghanistan for military duty; the response is that well, at least it's not Iraq. Only completely different. Nevermind.

Had some great barbecue there, stayed at a nice hotel, ordered room service, got to use the company credit card, drove a huge rental car (Mercury Montego: very comfortable, drives like a pig [How do pigs drive?]). Was very impressed with 6th street: there's a 5 or 6 block stretch of downtown Austin near the university in which practically every establishment is a bar. There's (crappy) live music everywhere, and you can't walk a block without getting offered several $1 Long Islands or beers by the teeming hordes of bouncers. Most impressive. Which is not to say fun.

That's about all I have to say about Austin. I was only there for about 48 hours and it didn't seem that bad. Oh, I do have one piece of advice: don't expect the IHOPs there to be anywhere better than IHOPs elsewhere. Not that you would... but, you know, just in case. ;)