Friday Five

The Excuse

None needed! W00t!

The Week

I wound up at one of my old standbys this week – Houston. I haven’t been able to get together with friends the past couple of trips out here, and unfortunately this week was no exception. Hopefully the next time out here I’ll be able to see friends. I did manage to go check out a couple of restaurants this week which was nice.

Unfortunately, I did wind up being on the road on our anniversary (the 3rd – 14 years), and Karin’s birthday (the 5th – 29 again). It is just one of those things that comes with the territory.

The Restaurant

I decided on Wednesday that I wanted something that went with a good glass of red wine, which meant steak or Italian. I wound up going for Italian. I found a place called Simposio, which is in one of the million or so strip malls on Westheimer. It’s a very elegant little restaurant, although it was empty when I was there – granted it was 5-6p on a Wednesday, but still.

The special that night was ossobuco, which is one of my favorite things on the planet. I started with my traditional Manhattan (although I didn’t say “up” so it was on the rocks – I survived), and then the manager/waiter suggested a wine for me to try, which was a perfect pair (and exactly the type of wine I was looking for). Oh, and the ossobuco was amazing.

Fantastic place for a nice romantic dinner.

The Exercise

Well – I did manage to get down to the gym… Once, but still.

The Travel Note

I appreciate companies who get certain things right – and sometimes it’s just the small things. National and Alamo have computerized kiosks for checking in, and you simply walk outside and choose the car you want from the class you reserved. Very nice and simple. I was stuck standing in line for 10 minutes with Avis when I got to Houston. Kiosks, people.

The Five

Five little things I always travel with

1. A male-male min-jack stereo cable. Most every car now has a min-jack plug-in, which means I can listen to my Zune in the car.[1]
2. A dual-USB car charger from Belkin. Can charge both my Zune and iPhone at the same time. Worth every penny of the $20.
3. Umbrella. Just put it in the water bottle holder on my computer bag.
4. Extra velcro cable wraps. I got tired of my computer bag being a rats nest of cables. The cable wraps make it very easy to wrap them all up, but I have a tendency to lose them. I always try to have extras.
5. Batteries. Some day everything will just have a built in battery. Until then, I always try to keep spares.

[1] Please not - you will want to be careful not to forget it in the rental car. I’m on about my 5th now.