Austin, Texas

Well, it has been a very long time since I wrote on this thing. This has been a very busy semester both with my full-time job and my full-time work as a graduate student working on a second masters degree. Since my last post I have been to Portland, Oregon, and to the beach along the Gulf Coast on the Florida Panhandle. I finally read "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury, a couple of weeks ago. Pretty interesting. I have now started a book by Isaac Asimov called "Prelude to Foundation" - chronologically the first out of six novels in his Foundation series. I am heading towards the end of the book and it has been phenomenal! Very well written, interesting, and quite thought-provoking. Quite exciting as well. An adventure set many thousands of years into the future. The protagonists are a professor of mathematics and a professor of history. I can't wait to read the remaining five novels in the series, and maybe some other stuff by Asimov as this is the first work of his that I have read.

I am now on a business trip in Austin, Texas for two nights (my first time to Austin, although I've been to Texas many times - I have a relative that lives in San Antonio, which I really enjoy - the Riverwalk is beautiful!). We arrived here yesterday afternoon from Birmingham (on Southwest Airlines via Houston-Hobby) and set up our booth in the exhibit hall at the convention. We're staying in the Hilton Hotel. My room is very nice. After setting up, I walked around downtown a little while and walked over to "Town Lake" which has sort of a waterfront park along the Texas version of the Colorado River (not the same one that carved out the Grand Canyon). There were a lot of people out on the lake practicing crew/rowing. Last night my coworker, her husband, and I went out for drinks at a place called the Scholtz Garten near the UT campus. I had Shinerbock beer for the first time (supposedly only made and sold in Texas) - it was actually pretty good. Then we had dinner at a place called Stub's - famous for their Texas BBQ and beef brisket. I had just enough time to go swimming once we got back to the hotel. The heated outdoor pool and hot tub are on the eighth floor and have a wonderful view overlooking downtown Austin.

Today we spent all day standing at our exhibit booth at the convention (8:00 - 12:00 and 3:00 - 6:00). we went to lunch at a place called ...(oops, can't remember)... where I had Chicken fried steak, which is what the place is "world famous" for. The cab driver who took us there looked and acted like he had smoked one too many joints in the 60s and 70s... This evening we went to dinner at a 40-year old family-owned Mexican restaurant call La Azteca. I had Chicken Mole Enchiladas. Our cab driver to and from the restaurant was an accounting student at UT from Nigeria. I made the mistake of asking if he was from Lagos and he said no, but 200 Km from there, and said that would be like asking a Texan if he or she was from New York City! I should have know better than to ask that. Oh well. Then we drove through the 6th St. entertainment district and then walked around the Warehouse district and had drinks at an outdoor seating area at an Irish Pub. Austin is world famous for its large amount of live music performances at its many bars and restaurants. And one can really hear all the bands playing as the night moves on. Tomorrow morning we have a "networking brunch" at 8:00 am (so really more like a breakfast). I have to get there at 7:30 to reserve some seats. After that we'll check out of the hotel I suppose, then get some lunch, then head to the airport around 1:00 for our approx. 2:00 pm flight home to Birmingham via Dallas-Love Field on Southwest Airlines. Although tiring, its been a fun trip and a nice diversion from the normal routine of the office!

Next week I fly to San Francisco to speak and work at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers. I'm presenting a talk based on my master's thesis research. I'm really excited, particularly as I have not been to San Francisco before!