Mark L. Van Name's Blog, page 7

Yup, today's travel was special

Up at 4:45 a.m. after a little over three hours of sleep.

RDU screwed up the TSA pre-check line again thanks to having only one drug-sniffing dog.  Nothing says fun like extra time in the security line.

The plane to Cincinnati was late. 

The cabbie at the airport had no smartphone, an ancient GPS system, and didn't know how to find our destination.

The plane out of Cincinnati was late.

We hit the terminal in Atlanta with 25 minutes to go before our plane was due to take off--and we had to hike to the train, ride the train two stops, and then hike to our gate.  Amazingly, we made it.

The plane out of Atlanta was late in departing--but arrived early.

Business travel life is the party life.

I'll start catching up on Wednesday

Maybe Tuesday, if I'm lucky, but not tonight, and not tomorrow.  The reasons are fatigue and the fact that I have to get up at 4:45 a.m. to start an important business trip.

If you don't know me well, suffice to say that 4:45 a.m. is a frequent bedtime of mine, but it's not a time I get up.

Sorry about the delays.

Bandwidth blues in Norfolk mean no fight report tonight

Even echoing characters is taking seconds.  Back tomorrow with a report.

Home for hours

I'm spending about 16 hours at home before I leave tomorrow for an overnighter to, of all places, Norfolk.  The reason?  Great seats to a live UFC event--and at way cheaper prices than we've ever paid before.

One consequence of this brief time at home is that I have way too much to do in the time available, so I'm cutting this short and getting back to it.

It's been the kind of day that included only work

and I can't talk about that, so I'll leave you with a trailer for a movie I very much look forward to seeing next week when it opens.



I fear it won't be as much fun as the trailer suggests, but I'm going to hope that fear proves to be baseless.

Counter 3 . Five . VII continues to be Austin's best restaurant

When I learned recently that Executive Chef Damien Brockway had left Counter 3 . Five . VII (hereafter just "Counter"), I instantly had a few questions.  Would Counter stay in business?  Would the rest of the team there still get to keep doing the great work they've been doing, creating amazing food that was as interesting as it was delicious?  And, where was Damien going to work next, and when could I eat there?

I can't yet answer the last pair of questions, because I've found no evidence of what Damien's next project will be, but I'm happy to say that the answers to the other questions is a resounding, "Yes!" 

We ate dinner there earlier tonight, and every dish was delicious, thoughtful, and fun.  The housemade sodas were as tasty as ever, the team still fun to talk with, and the spirit of Counter alive and well.

As I've said many times, Counter is Austin's best restaurant.  If you live in Austin or are visiting it, do yourself a favor and check it out.

Austin turns chilly

I didn't expect this development. 

When I left on this long trip, the weather forecast showed Austin's high temperatures as being in the low eighties the whole time I was to be here.  That's about right for this time of year, so I packed only light, short-sleeve shirts.

That worked out fine yesterday, but today, as we were sitting in a patio at a business lunch, a front blew in, the temperatures fell, and it's stayed cool since then.  As I write this, it's 57 degrees out, and the high tomorrow is due to be 50. 

Fortunately (in this case), I don't get to walk much on these trips, and it's not cold enough to bother me, but still, I would have preferred it warmer.

Dinner tonight took us to Cooper's BBQ downtown, where we shared a lovely selection of barbecued meats and some spicy, bacon-and-jalapeno mac-and-cheese. 

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It was all delicious.

Dessert was my traditional downtown fare:  some tasty ice cream at a nearby Amy's. 

Now, the hour is late and work still beckons, so back to it I go!

Back in Austin

I left the World Fantasy Con hotel this morning and drove the couple of hours from San Antonio to Austin and through to Round Rock.  The drive proved to be easy, fast, and pleasant. 

I've already had work meetings, barbecue, ice cream, and more work--not the most fun dessert, but it is what it is.

Amazingly, the weather here may turn cold.  I do seem to have a talent for picking odd weather times to be in Austin, having been here for snow storms and floods. 

Now, it's time to crash.

An odd pair

An odd pair of events formed the bookends of my day.

The first was the World Fantasy Con awards banquet.  As a couple hundred (my guess) of us gathered in a fairly low-ceiling room in the hotel watched from our tables after eating banquet food, our increasingly aged group presented its annual awards.  I was happy for the winners, and the food was surprisingly decent overall, so as award banquets go, it was okay. 

The other was a showing of Thor: Ragnarok at a nearby theater.  I enjoyed the movie a great deal and found it both as much fun and as vivid in imagery as the reviews have suggested.  I definitely recommend it. 

Tomorrow, I change cities and begin the usual rounds of meetings.

Urban legends, barbecue, ice cream, and the UFC

After some work, I headed to my first--and only--panel of the convention.  The topic, "Urban Legends in the Age of Fake News," didn't excite me, in part because I refuse to accept the notions of alternative facts or a post-truth era.  Nonetheless, the panel seemed to entertain its audience, and the discussion moved along reasonably quickly, so I left feeling okay about the endeavor.

Lunch afterward took us to the Smoke Shack, a local barbecue joint that proved to be quite good.  We opted to share multiple dishes, including the brisket Frito pie, brisket mac-and-cheese, and brisket grilled cheese sandwich,

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as well as a two-meat sampler of brisket, sausage, mac-and-cheese, and creamed corn.


Every single dish was delicious, with the standalone brisket being the weakest link.  It was better than any brisket back home, but worse than yesterday's brisket at 2M.  The standout was the terrifying and life-threatening brisket grilled cheese sandwich, which was flat-out delicious--though obviously unhealthy.

After talking with friends, I retreated to my room to catch UFC 217, from the prelims to the PPV.  The only bad news was that I missed the first half hour of the prelims, because the football game on Fox Sports 1 ran long and the hotel didn't offer Fox Sports 2, which is where the Fox Sports programming gods moved the UFC. 

I had a great time watching the fights, which were uniformly strong.  The room-service dinner was passable--almost everyplace can manage a Cobb salad--and the fight card truly was great.  All three championship fights went to the challengers in great battles that ended in finishes. 

As a further treat, tonight I get an extra hour of sleep (well, we all do, but I do, too)!  I love that treat.