Marathon

Last night, my wife and I went to see a performance by Bill Maher at the Majestic Theatre in Dallas. It was a shot in the arm to hear the very large crowd respond well to Maher's jabs at Bush and the religious right...Dallas isn't purely right-wing evangelical Republicans, after all. A few people left immediately after he started, objective either to his profanity or his message, but most seemed to enjoy it immensely. We did. It was a great way to cap off an afternoon spent wandering the West End Marketplace, having a margarita (Sangria swirl for my wife) at the Cadillac Cafe and then dinner at RJ Mexican restaurant.

Afterward, we went to the Westin hotel in downtown Dallas, where we used a certificate for a free weekend night. My wife went right to bed, but I stayed up and watched part of Saturday Night Live. After I went to bed, the young women in the next room got to their room and chatted and laughed loudly until at least 2:00 am. When my pounding on the wall did nothing to quiet them, I planned to awaken at 5:00 am and make calls to their room every 15 minutes, but I got up at 7:30 and it appeared they left before I got up. Pity, it would have been fun to have acted like a spiteful teenager and cause them grief and loss of sleep.

Our certificate included breakfast for two in 650 Restaurant, which boasts being the best restaurant in Dallas. It's not, but it's pretty good, at least for breakfast. We both opted to get two poached eggs on an English muffin topped with meat or fish, then topped with a chipotle hollandaise sauce. Wife wife selected the smoked salmon version, I selected the beef tenderloin version. Both were wonderful.

The rest of the day was spent driving about the Dallas area, over to Arlington and beyond, in search of bluebonnets. I had seen many on my recent trip south, but my wife had not and was in the mood to see some. We found only a few, not nearly as lush as the carpets of bluebonnets I had seen...but at least she got to see some. By late afternoon, we were hungry for a late lunch/early dinner, so we stopped at a restaurant we used to frequent years ago when we lived in Arlington, Pham Thi Truoc, or PTT. We had stopped making the long trip back some time ago because they stopped carrying my wife's favorite dish, goat curry. But we decided to stop in again today, just to give it another try. My wife was delighted to see goat curry on the menu and promptly ordered it. I ordered bun (vermicelli noodles) with bean sprouts, sliced green onions, carrot shavings, lettuce, cilantro, and a nicely flavored fish-based sauce, with accompaniments of my choosing...I got the grilled slices of pork and grilled shrimp. When mixed with their excellent very spicy sauce at the table, it was wonderful.


Tomorrow morning, I meet two guys for breakfast to talk about one of our client association's activities, then back to the office to create a number of blast emails for upcoming client events. I have to have name badges, etc. printed for a new client meeting, then pack everything up in time to leave early Tuesday morning for Austin. I really wish I had a technologically saavy meeting planner who could do it all...mine isn't tech saavy at all. People who refuse to keep pace with technology that impacts their jobs should expect, at some point, that the jobs will go to someone else.

Enough. I have work to do before tomorrow's marathon sessions.