On the road again: Austin, day 4

Another day of work on the road, another day I can't say much about.  The work meetings were good, and the work reasonable, but that's the end of what I can discuss.

Dinner was with friends and colleagues at Hudson's on the Bend, a place that has, I am sad to report, slipped quite a bit.  The food was good, but it never reached the heights it had previously achieved. 

Tomorrow, I spend the day working and flying home. 

On the road again: Austin, day 2

Today's work meetings were interesting and often fun, but I can't talk about them, for all the usual client-confidentiality reasons.  With the exception of dinner, I was working the entire rest of the day, so dinner it is.

Hudson's on the Bend has been an Austin favorite of mine since I first ate there, so tonight we drove over there for a tasty meal. I made my dinner from a few appetizers, and all were delicious. My favorite was the wild mushroom and Parmesan cheese risotto with duck confit and asparagus tips.

Click on the image to see a larger version.

On a damp, slightly chilly night, it was a perfect comfort food. 

If you like strong flavors, I definitely recommend this place.

Tomorrow, drum roll, more meetings and more work!

On the road again: Austin, day 4

These Austin days and nights are perfect, with warm sunlight and light breezes, then cool but not cold evenings. Absolutely lovely.

Dinner tonight was at Hudson's on the Bend. We ate the tasting menu on the covered patio, which is strung with white lights, and it was a very nice meal. The weakest dish was the red meat (a Texas antelope chop), and it was still tasty.

My days here are long and exhausting, work claiming all but the food and shower hours and a few restless ones in bed, so I'm going to keep this short and get back to it.

Tomorrow, I fly home.

On the road again: Austin, day 3

I realized late last night that the one thing I was doing wrong this trip was sleeping too much, so I fixed that flaw. Seven a.m. came mighty early. I am just not a morning person.

Thanks to Elizabeth's willingness to brave the morning traffic (and sacrifice some sleep), we were able to bring two dozen Round Rock donuts to an early meeting for a client and her team. These donuts are supposed to be very good, but as fate would have it, I ended up not getting one. It's all for the best, but I certainly would have enjoyed eating it.

The rest of the day was a blur of meetings and frantic email sessions as I struggled to keep up.

In one of those moves that I don't really understand, this hotel--a Marriott--has put a brochure in my room from which I can order Marriott stuff: towels, sheets, robes, a lamp, even an entire bed--all just like what I have in my room!

Who buys this stuff?

What's the thinking process? Wow, I sure wish my bedroom could look like this Marriott room. Maybe if I furnish it and my bathroom with cool Marriott stuff, I can get closer to my dream of living the Marriott lifestyle.

Not for me, not for me.

Dinner tonight was the tasting menu at Hudson's On the Bend, a very tasty combination of small plates heavy on local meats and vegetables. I quite enjoyed it, particularly the foie, which they served seared on top of a Poteet strawberry pound cake with a Cabernet reduction and just the right amount of red onion marmalade. (Yes, I was skeptical of the marmalade, too, but it worked.)

And now, as happens on these trips, I must work until late into the night, so to that work I go.