Friday Five

The Week

<voice style=”Larry King”>Houston, Hello.</voice>

Yeah, back in Houston, again... But visiting here in April isn’t that big of a problem weather wise at least. No snow, and it’s not 90 degrees and humid. And on the plus side I managed to get in dinner with a friend. But, still, it’s Houston.

The Travel Note

As luck would have it, Drew Brees was on my flight – 2 seats away from me actually (I was in 2F, he was in 1B). Turns out he drinks cranberry & vodka, and is willing to sign every autograph and take every picture.

And, no, I didn’t ask for an autograph or even say anything to him. As far as I’m concerned, he’s just trying to live his life, trying to fly home. He doesn’t need me bugging him (much in the same way I don’t like being bothered with computer questions by random strangers). I do appreciate the fact that he’s friendly enough to put up with it. I will add, though, that I thought the flight attendants asking for pictures was rather unprofessional on their part.

The Restaurant

Ever since we've moved to San Diego, we've had many people tell us we need to do dinner at Busalacchi's. According to rumor, it was a favorite Tommy Lasorda who used to visit every trip to San Diego. But despite living in San Diego for 11 years now we'd never made the trip, similar to how you never take advantage of the museums and other tourist attractions in the town you live in. When we heard they were closing to move to a new location, we finally decided to give the place a visit.

The first thing that indicated to me it was going to be closing soon was that we were able to call on Wednesday and get a reservation for Friday - and call on Friday and push that reservation back 30 minutes without a problem. Upon arriving at the restaurant we saw why it was so easy - the place was empty, like tumbleweeds rolling through the restaurant empty (although I suppose that should be tumbleweeds made out of dried spaghetti to fit the location...) We sat outside on the patio, where there was one other couple who left about 20 minutes after we arrived giving us the patio to ourselves.
We started out with drinks - my usual manhattan (which was very good) and a white wine for the lady. We were informed of the specials, and settled on a lobster crepe with a cream sauce. Despite the cream sauce it was still remarkably light and very tasty.

For dinner I went with the lamb chop special, which was just dynamite. The veggies it was served with were cooked well - a nice al dente. My wife had a seafood pasta dish with scallops and shrimp. She enjoyed it, but thought the shrimp and scallops were a bit overcooked (although she is picky about that).

I was fine going without dessert, but when the dessert tray arrived my wife had to have their apple tart. This was the first time the experience fell flat on its face. Dessert was *terrible*! How do you screw up dessert? It's by far the easiest thing. The dessert tasted like it had been microwaved - the crust had no flakiness, no crisp - it was just terrible.

The service was very attentive, with just one faux pas at the end - the waiter gave us our check before we were actually done eating. Beyond that, he was very friendly and took great care of us.

It will be sad to see this place close down. If you haven't been here already, I'd definitely recommend a visit. But skip the dessert.

The Five

As I mentioned above, Karin and I really don’t take advantage of the city we live in, which is really pretty typical for most people I believe. Here are five things we either need to do or need to do more often.

1. Visit the beach. It’s less than 10 miles away, yet we make it there about once a year (tops).
2. Do more on the water. Sort of related going to be the beach, but different. I think I’ve been out on the water about twice in our 11 years.
3. Spend a day in Balboa Park. There’s There ARE many, many museums and sites there that we’ve never visited.
4. Roam the shops in La Jolla. Not that we could afford anything there, but it’s a great way to spend a day.
5. Hike up one of the mountains. Not once have I done that.

Friday Five

The Week

Take a guess as to where I was this week. Go ahead – guess. I’ll give you a minute.

If you said “Houston”, I’d say move to the head of the class, except of course for the fact that the question was way too easy. If you said “San Jose” or “Tampa”, I’ll give you 2 points for a good guess. If you said “San Diego”, well, then, you must be new here.

This was a rather stressful week for me as not only did I have to teach, but I also was delivering a keynote for the MCT Virtual Summit on Wednesday night. Actually that’s not completely true – the session started at midnight on Wednesday, so it was technically Thursday morning. But despite all of that, both the keynote and the class went off near flawlessly. In all the week went as well as it possibly could have – although I was dragging for about 3 days in the middle there.

The Restaurant

My favorite sushi joint in Houston closed since my last visit. Brokenhearted, I’ve begun the search for a new location, and I may have already found it.

I’ve long believed that there’s an inverse relationship between the “coolness” factor of a sushi restaurant and the quality of the sushi they serve. When you’re spending that much money on being hip, something has to suffer and it’s usually the food. Besides, people there are more interested in being seen than actually enjoying a good meal.

Sasaki further proves this point. Sasaki is a tiny, unassuming restaurant in a strip mall. There’s maybe about 15 tables, and about 10 seats at the sushi bar.

I was warmly greet upon walking in, and settled in at the sushi bar. I went for my standard Kirin and asked for “chef’s choice sashimi plate”. (For those of you who’ve never done sushi, the best way to get the freshest fish and expand your horizons is to let the chef lead the way.) The chef, who was very friendly, put together a plate with tuna, salmon, some form of a bass(?) and snail.

Yes, snail.

As I said above, when you trust a sushi chef you never know what you’re going to get. I’ve had snail before in the form of escargot, and while I liked it I could never get my mind over the fact I was eating snails. But, the chef served it up, and I’m going to eat it.

And I’m glad I did. It had a very delicate flavor. I don’t know that I could truly explain it, but it was real nice. As for the rest of the fish – outstanding.

I may have found my new spot for sushi in Houston.

The Travel Note

I finally saw Up in the Air. The movie itself left me rather flat (it really didn’t go anywhere), but it did a decent job of showing the life of the road warrior. In particular, George Clooney’s suitcase – you’ll notice he was very careful about where he put everything. I’m the exact same way. With my eyes closed I can tell you where everything belongs in my suitcase.

The Five

There are perks to being on the road as much as I am. Below are the five best things about travel.

1. Upgrades – in particular on airplanes. Yes, the decent food is nice. And the free alcohol is great. But really it’s all about the seat – greater comfort and more room.
2. Visiting cities I wouldn’t have otherwise. I never would have chosen to go to Boise; it’s now one of my favorite towns to visit.
3. Seeing friends in other cities. I’ve been able to get out to DC to see Abram many times, Memphis to see old college friends, and many others.
4. Free travel. I’ve been able to use points to get many free tickets. I was also able to purchase two roundtrip tickets to Australia for just over $700 total.
5. Being able to shortcut lines. In particular the security line. Can easily cut 30 minutes off the time it takes to get to the gate.

Friday Five

The Week

For those of you scoring at home^[1], you'll have no doubt noticed one small inconsistency in my review of Tini Bigs last week – I mentioned Karin in the review but not in “The Week” section. The reason for this is I try to keep the review from Friday to Friday, and Karin didn’t arrive in Seattle until the Friday night that capped off the week.

Having never been to Seattle, Karin decided that this trip was the right opportunity to come up and check out the city. Since the weather behaved, I think she was rather impressed. Friday saw us just hanging out with MCT’s and keeping things rather mellow. Saturday was just us on the town, and we managed to fit quite a bit in but yet not feel overly rushed on the day – despite not hitting the town until about noon.

We started off with breakfast at Sweet Iron, a small waffle shop (reviewed below). We then roamed on down to Pike Place Market to see all the little shops. Karin would have spent all day (and the better part of a week, I think) checking out every single store if given the chance.

Because we wanted to do the underground tour and still be able to make dinner at Elemental (you have to be there by about 4:30 or so to get a table), we cut our visit to Pike Place to a shorter period of time thank Karin would have liked. Bill Speidel's Underground Tour takes you through the sidewalks under the sidewalks in Seattle. As it turns out, Seattle was originally built below sea level. When a fire destroyed the city in the early 1900’s, they rebuilt with the knowledge they’d be raising the streets after buildings were built. So the sidewalks you walk on in certain  parts of Seattle are hollow underneath, and the tour takes you through there and explains a lot of the history of Seattle. It’s well worth the visit if you’re up there.

Our visit to Elemental turned out to be a bust. After taking the $20 cab ride over to the restaurant we discovered they were closed for a private party – on a Saturday night. We flagged the same cabbie to take us back to the city (in particular to Tini Bigs so we could have a cocktail and watch the game), and he took pity on us charging us only $10 to go back. Brokenhearted, we soldiered on finding a little wine bar/restaurant around the corner from Tini Bigs called Black Bottle. Black Bottle did have one thing going for it – quite possibly the best ribs I’ve ever had. They’re bison ribs and they came out with a great smoky hickory flavor – and no sauce. But never fear – they didn’t need it. In fact, we ordered another plate for dessert they were just that good.

And if you’d like to see pictures, they’re here.

Sunday saw Karin flying home and me flying to Dallas. My week here was, well, another week on the road.

The Travel Note

Quick review of public etiquette:

People getting off the [elevator|subway|tram] have the right of way. Give them room rather than fighting your way on. Trust me, you’ll have time to board.

Escalators are moving objects. When someone is standing on one they don’t have the ability to stop. When you stand at the end of one, the people approaching have nowhere to go except in your back.

Hallways are meant for walking, not congregating and conversing. Don’t be upset with the man who walks right through your group using the hallway for its intended purpose.

The Restaurant

In an effort to find a quick bite to eat before we headed out to see the city, Karin and I took a trip down to Sweet Iron. This is quite possibly the most affordable, best breakfast in downtown Seattle.

The waffles are relatively small (Karin and I split 3) of them, but very flavorful. We had their banana brulee, strawberry (which comes with whipped cream and balsamic vinegar - very tasty) and bacon - how can you go wrong with bacon on a waffle.

The coffee was very good, the service friendly. Great place to start your day in Seattle.

The Five

I know I need to learn to deal with stress better. Here are five stress relievers that do help me.

1. A well made cocktail. I’ve mentioned this many, many times before. But at the end of a long day a crafted cocktail helps the stress just roll right off the shoulders.^[2]
2. Going out with friends. This is one are where Karin and I differ greatly – after a long, stressful day I want to go out and let off some steam. Karin wants to curl up on the couch.
3. Running. This is of course a rather new one, but being able to “run away” from life’s troubles for a while is wonderful.
4. One on one time with Karin. There’s certainly something to be said for spending time with someone who understands you.^[3]
5. Good music. Give me my Zune and my headphones and after a while I’ll soon forget about what ails me.

^[1] Or even if you’re alone.
^[2] I thought about asking for comments as to what cocktail in particular I might be after, but then I realized that’d be too easy of a question.
^[3] Or at least tolerates you.

Five for Fighting

Peter King probably does just fine on his own when it comes to exposure, but for those of you who don’t know him he’s a column writer for Sports Illustrated. This month I want to focus on a drive he started for Sgt. Mike McGuire.

Peter met Sgt. McGuire at a Cardinals game in 2005. Both men were there alone, sitting next to each other and happened to strike up a conversation. Half way through the game neither one of them was paying attention as Peter was riveted by everything Sgt. McGuire was telling him. Sgt. McGuire is a battalion leader for 100+ troops who specialize in IED removal (think The Hurt Locker).

Sgt. McGuire and his men are being deployed to a remote region of Afghanistan and will not have access to a large base. Large bases mean creature comforts such as televisions, gaming systems and even little things such as snacks. Small, temporary bases generally have none of those. This is where the USO steps in, providing these reminders of home. Of course, the USO needs money to provide those.

With the help of Five for Fighting singer John Ondrasik and the USO, Peter has launched the Five for Fighting drive. The premise is simple – donate $5 towards kits for Sgt. McGuire’s men and other battalions. Over the first couple of weeks enough money has been raised for Sgt. McGuire’s battalion, but a handful of others. There’s more to be done.

This is not about politics, nor is about what one feels about the war. It’s all about the troops – the brave men and women who are out their fighting and putting their lives at risk.

So, if the spirit moves, you can donate $5 here.

Friday Five

The Excuse

Ok – Look. I was planning on writing this on Friday. In fact, I had most of it typed out on Friday. But unfortunately, as you’ll read below, I was at a conference. Trying to accomplish anything when you’re at a conference is basically impossible. Brenda will back me up on this.

The Week

Ah, convention weeks.

This week I was up in Seattle working a Microsoft convention. If you’ve never experienced a convention, the basic agenda looks like this:

• Roll out of bed at around 7a
• Head over and figure out what terrible food the convention center is serving for breakfast
• Work
• Choke down terrible convention food^[1] for lunch
• Work
• Clean up and head out for dinner
• Spend the night networking^[2], generally at a sponsored^[3] event
• Collapse in bed
• Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

It’s a lot of work and a lot of fun. And all joking aside, they generally are great opportunities. But it is nonstop for the entire week.

The Restaurant Bar

In a first for my Restaurant section of the Friday Five, I’m highlighting a bar as I was just that blown away by it. The way I see it, a great cocktail is similar to a gourmet meal. It should be crafted with quality ingredients with care by a bartender, similar to the way a chef crafts a dish. And while we're at it, the bartender should not only care about his drinks but his guests - being both friendly and entertaining. Tini Bigs sees it my way.

Over the 7 nights I spent recently in Seattle, 3 of them found me in Tini Bigs. The first night saw us talking up a storm with Brian and trying two of his concoctions. I had two of the manhattans on the menu (which for anyone who knows me is the farthest thing from a surprise), and my friend had two tequila based drinks. (As a side note, their high end liquor selection, while relatively small, is rock solid.) When we found out it was Brian's second to last night, we made plans to head back the following night for his last.

When we walked in the second night he recognized us immediately, directed us to the bar and took our order - remembering the second drink I had the night before (as that's what I wanted but couldn't remember what it was). From there we really just let Brian do his thing, telling him to simply create whatever came to mind based on what he knew about our tastes, and not once were we handed a bad drink.

The last night I was in town my wife and I stopped by when Shane took care of us. We weren't there for very long - two cocktails for me, and one for Karin. The moment that really sold me that night was when Karin (an admitted lightweight) decided she had enough to drink. When Shane asked if she wanted another and was told "no", his immediate response was, "I know just what to make you. You won't even taste the alcohol." Karin, being a great sport, simply gave an uneasy "okaaaaay" and awaited his next concoction. I watched him make it - he simply filled the shaker with ice, water, a couple squeezes of lemon, shook it up like a normal cocktail and served it in a martini glass with a twist. He dropped off the drink, calling it a "Blue Dolphin" (IIRC). He then came back later and explained what it was and that he didn't want Karin to feel left out.

I've been to many bars, and this one ranks right up there. I don't quite know that I'm ready yet to declare it my favorite (I am prone to hyperbole), but right now I can't think of one that would top it. It would almost make it bearable to live in Seattle. Almost. (BTW - I do love Seattle, I just can't take the weather.)^[4]

The Travel Note

I discovered that my roller bag does fit in one of the sizer bins after a very (ahem)friendly gate agent insisted I put it in the bin. Nobody was more surprised about this than I was, except maybe the gate agent.

The Five

Five notes about airports:

1. Favorite airport – San Diego. Partly because it’s where I live, but also because it’s a small, convenient airport.
2. Hated airport – San Jose. I don’t think I need to beat up on this airport any more.
3. Best food – Houston. Over the last couple of years this airport has come a long way. They have quite a few good restaurants, including a wine bar/bistro that would survive just fine outside of the airport.
4. Biggest tip – Be nice to the TSA agents. They have the power to make your life miserable. As right as you may be, you won’t win the argument.
5. Biggest peeve – Airports that still charge for wifi. I’m not paying $10 to access the internet.

^[1] Most. Redundant. Sentence. Ever.
^[2] Networking [n] – Hanging out with friends that you don’t get to see nearly often enough while imbibing
^[3] Translation: Sponsored == free alcohol
^[4] There is inconsistency here if you’re paying attention. I’ll fix that next week

Friday Five

The Week

It appears that my travel has become rather repetitious. A bit redundant. That I’m visiting the same cities over and over again. Like I’ve been here before recently. It’s as if... – OK, I’ve killed that joke. In any event, because I knew the way, I was in San Jose again this week.^[1]

The nice part about San Jose, as I’ve mentioned before, is the ability to see friends. Full time travel can become quite a grind, but being able to see a friend you wouldn’t normally have had the chance to see makes things that much more bearable. Really – having human contact outside of the classroom makes all the difference in the world.

Unfortunately, I was only able to get together with a few friends as a couple of others had to back out. I guess not everyone can rearrange their lives around me.

The Restaurant

I have a confession to make. There are many kitschy things I enjoy. I love dueling piano bars. I enjoy romantic comedies more than I probably should. And I love me a good teppanyaki restaurant.

Now like a piano bar or romantic comedy, every one is basically the same. The chef comes out, taps around a lot of the cook surface and a salt shaker and then begins cooking. The jokes are the same. The tricks are the same - flipping shrimp, tossing pieces of egg, onion volcano. The food is the same. Yet for reasons I just can't explain I eat it all up (literally and figuratively).

The food is always good if not great. The atmosphere is a lot of fun and very social. It's a bit spendy, but you're getting dinner and a show.

Just save room for the green tea ice cream.

The Travel Note

The TSA has changed the information they require for travel in the US – they now need a full name. When I registered for my OnePass account with Continental (their frequent flyer program) I used Christopher Harrison. Now it needs to be Christopher Patrick Harrison. So I called up the service center to have this changed (because the website won’t let me – FTL). They said they updated it – only they left it as Pat.^[2] I still can’t get my OnePass number on that flight.

The Five

I’ve been connected for as long as I can remember. As such, I’ve accepted certain terms and abbreviations as commonplace and I assume other people know them as well. Alas, that’s not always the case. So here’s a list of terms and abbreviations I use (consider it a Geek to English cheatsheet).

1. Grok – From Stranger in a Strange Land, “grok” is a bit of Martian that means literally “to drink”. Figuratively it means to understand fully.
   Usage: “I grok the Chargers wanting to cut ties with Antonio Cromartie.”
2. IIRC – If I recall (remember) correctly.
   Usage: “IIRC, Ed Hochuli was a great official decades ago.”
3. AFAIK – As far as I know.
   Usage: “AFAIK, Matt Holiday has not yet touched home plate.”
4. FTL (For The Loss) and FTW (For The Win) – Bad and good things respectively.
   Usage: “I got upgrade on my flight from SAN to EWR. FTW!” or
   “I got stuck next to a screaming child from SAN to EWR. FTL!”
5. Airport codes – I’d mention a quick Google search will help you out, but just to list off a couple of common ones I use:
   SAN – San Diego
   SJC – San Jose
   IAH – Houston (Bush)
   DCA – Washington National (Reagan)
   BWI – Baltimore
   EWR – Newark
   ORD – Chicago (O’Hare)

^[1] Again, you’re welcome, Brenda.
^[2] What is it with people wanting to abbreviate my name?

Friday Five

The Week

This is the way a week should start. You leave Washington, DC on Saturday morning and land in Las Vegas later that night to be greeted by friends and whisked off to the Hofbrauhaus. Abram and I had planned a trip to Vegas the week (as it so happened) after I was in DC. We also managed to convince Donna, Richard and Karin to head out with us for a night at the Hofbrauhaus. Needless to say that kicked off the week perfectly.

Abram and I were left alone without adult supervision for the next two nights in Vegas and managed to stay out of trouble – most of the time anyway. During our stay we had dinner at Lawry’s Prime Rib (highlighted below) and saw Penn & Teller. If you’ve never seen them you owe it to yourself to take in a showing. If you’ve seen them then you should see them again – their show is in a constant state of flux. We also visited one of our favorite places, Casa Fuenta, which is one of the few (only?) cigar bars left on The Strip.

Seeing as how Abram had traveled this far, it only seemed fair that he venture the rest of the way out to San Diego. He’s managed to spend the time catching up with friends, and I’ve spend the time avoiding work (with varying degrees of success).

The Restaurant

As I mentioned above Abram and I, on our traditional Suit Night, decided to visit Lawry’s Prime Rib. While there may be many places in Vegas you can get “prime rib” for $10, I can guarantee you the quality and service doesn’t hold a candle to a dinner at Lawry’s.

The first thing that strikes you when you walk in is the feel of the place. It looks like it was transported in from the 1940’s. We arrived very early for our reservation hoping to be seated earlier, alas to no avail. However, we were directed to the lounge area to enjoy a predinner cocktail. (Bonus points to anyone who can guess what I ordered.)

Upon being seated we were introduced to our server, Ms. Backman.^[1] Not Susan, or Stephanie, or Alice. Her name was Ms. Backman.

Ms. Backman introduced us to the menu and let us know we could choose our cut of prime rib when the carver wheeled the roaster around to our table. We started off with some shrimp cocktail which was good. The one issue I did have with it was the cocktail sauce didn’t have enough horseradish, ironically enough.

After finishing our appetizer, Ms. Backman came back to prepare our spinning salad and deliver our wine (bottle of J Lohr cab). Shortly after the salads Ms. Backman came back to introduce us to Juan, our carver. He opened up the roaster to present us with a three skewers of meat, mashed potatoes and other sides if you were interested. We both went with the The "Diamond Jim Brady" Cut, which includes the bone. It was served with mashed potatoes and doused with au jus, with horseradish (creamed and straight) on the side.

The meat was unbelievably flavorful and tender. It certainly didn’t need any horseradish, but as I love horseradish I couldn’t resist. The mashed potatoes were of course perfect (you have to work hard to mess up mashed potatoes), and the gravy awesome.

Trust me – resist the urge to visit a $10 buffet to get your prime rib. You get what you pay for, and this place is worth the extra money.

The Travel Note

There’s a long list of things I’ve left on planes. You can now add a Zune to that list. Fortunately a flight attendant did find it and it’s on it’s way back here.

The Five

In honor of Vegas, here’s a list of five of my favorite things in Vegas. This is not an exclusive list, and this is in no order.

1. The Art of Shaving – If you’ve never experienced a hot shave you owe it to yourself to indulge in this little bit of manly pampering.
2. Casa Fuenta – It’s in Caesar’s, so the prices are a bit high. But as I mentioned before it’s about the only cigar bar left on The Strip.
3. Penn & Teller – Still the best show in Vegas.
4. Mon Ami Gabi – French steakhouse across the street from Bellagio inside of Paris. If you sit outside you’ll overlook the hustle/bustle of The Strip and the Bellagio fountains.
5. Hofbrauhaus – I don’t know how many times we’ve been there, but we’ve never had a bad time there.

^[1] If they were going to be truly period accurate, however – she would be Mrs. or Miss, rather than Ms. I’m just saying...