On the road
Trying to get back in the habit of posting at least semi-regularly....let me kill 15 minutes before I fall into bed with an entry.
I'm in Middleton, Wisconsin (it's a suburb/neighbor city of Madison) for a two-day meeting. It being rather hard to fly in and out of Madison, I caught a 9 AM flight this morning even though the meeting doesn't start until tomorrow. But the 9 AM was the only non-stop flight, and the other options really weren't much better in terms of timing. Same sort of problem on the return, with the addition of wanting to be home Thursday night to preserve my option of driving to DeepSouthCon on Friday if I have that much energy. Lois Bujold as GOH is a strong attractor! Anyway, I will catch the one non-stop return flight Thursday afternoon even though the meeting will continue past my departure time. If they'd only stuck to the original plan of a 1-1/2 day meeting....
I do seem to have never turned my brain to trip planning for this one. I did have plane tickets, a rental car, and a hotel--even at government rate, though all day I was wondering if I'd remembered to get that. I did forget to ask on the Bujold list and on piffle about meeting up with folks, and I forgot that a co-worker I have gotten to know better during some database tests this last year is in the Wisconsin office. Luckily she was in, and found me a desk to work at for the day, a computer cable, and a list of restaurant recommendations. As I didn't hook up with any of the other people who've traveled for the meeting, I went with one of C's recommended spots, the Hubbard Avenue Diner, sat at the counter, and had a nice Wisconsin cheddar cheeseburger, fries, and Pie. Chocolate coconut pie, to be precise, which my server had not tried but which in concept was too tempting to pass up. In execution, it wasn't quite there--it was a pretty dense chocolate filling with lots of toasted coconut folded in, and a lighter topping layer that was probably chocolate whipped cream. The chocolate was a little too over whelming for the coconut flavor. I was wanting something more like a Mounds candy bar. Maybe a chocolate coconut pie done in layers would be closer to that effect, and would better balance the flavors. Oh, and I want one of the diner's T-shirts: I (heart) (pi).
OK, my morning flight after not enough sleep (up too late packing and straightening the house) has caught up with me, and I'm turning in. Tomorrow's meeting will require a rested brain.
I'm in Middleton, Wisconsin (it's a suburb/neighbor city of Madison) for a two-day meeting. It being rather hard to fly in and out of Madison, I caught a 9 AM flight this morning even though the meeting doesn't start until tomorrow. But the 9 AM was the only non-stop flight, and the other options really weren't much better in terms of timing. Same sort of problem on the return, with the addition of wanting to be home Thursday night to preserve my option of driving to DeepSouthCon on Friday if I have that much energy. Lois Bujold as GOH is a strong attractor! Anyway, I will catch the one non-stop return flight Thursday afternoon even though the meeting will continue past my departure time. If they'd only stuck to the original plan of a 1-1/2 day meeting....
I do seem to have never turned my brain to trip planning for this one. I did have plane tickets, a rental car, and a hotel--even at government rate, though all day I was wondering if I'd remembered to get that. I did forget to ask on the Bujold list and on piffle about meeting up with folks, and I forgot that a co-worker I have gotten to know better during some database tests this last year is in the Wisconsin office. Luckily she was in, and found me a desk to work at for the day, a computer cable, and a list of restaurant recommendations. As I didn't hook up with any of the other people who've traveled for the meeting, I went with one of C's recommended spots, the Hubbard Avenue Diner, sat at the counter, and had a nice Wisconsin cheddar cheeseburger, fries, and Pie. Chocolate coconut pie, to be precise, which my server had not tried but which in concept was too tempting to pass up. In execution, it wasn't quite there--it was a pretty dense chocolate filling with lots of toasted coconut folded in, and a lighter topping layer that was probably chocolate whipped cream. The chocolate was a little too over whelming for the coconut flavor. I was wanting something more like a Mounds candy bar. Maybe a chocolate coconut pie done in layers would be closer to that effect, and would better balance the flavors. Oh, and I want one of the diner's T-shirts: I (heart) (pi).
OK, my morning flight after not enough sleep (up too late packing and straightening the house) has caught up with me, and I'm turning in. Tomorrow's meeting will require a rested brain.