Everyone has heard time and again how awful British food once was and how it's much better now. I cannot attest to the former, but I can say that we had no trouble finding a delicious meal during our stay in London.

Continue reading "London - The Eating Part"

I swore when I started writing about our trip, I wasn't going to torture folks with a play-by-play of our vacation, but it seems I haven't done a very good job. Unfortunately for you, I'm too far in to quit now! Luckily, in my weariness, my notes are much more sparse through the remainder of the trip.

Continue reading "London - The Tourist Part - Part 2"

In late May, early June of this year, Sean and I headed out to London for a couple weeks. We took a few side trips, but generally, we spent the majority of our two weeks hunkered down in London, taking in the sites and tooling around the town. We utilized the services of HomeAway and booked an apartment for the duration of our two week stay. The apartment was small, but functional and very conveniently located near the Elephant and Castle tube station. Amusingly, we were repeatedly told we were not staying in the nicest part of town. I will say, the crowd was young and the sounds of revelry often nudged their way in through our windows, but I never for a moment felt unsafe.

Continue reading "London - The Tourist Part"

We have a new hobby. Well, I guess it's not actually new. We've dabbled off and on with the idea of making cocktails at home. Unfortunately Sean's stubborn wife (me) was too dead-set against anything that smacked of being "too sweet." Consequently, I didn't venture much beyond an occasional Manhattan. Well, this past fall, we began delving in earnest into the delightful, if sometimes difficult to clearly recall world of cocktail mixing.

Continue reading " A Cocktail a Day"

Back before I was gainfully employed, a nice lady emailed me and asked if I'd be interested in doing an interview for Spectrum Radio for their Geeks Cooking series. After some noncommittal emailing on my part, I found out the "Spectrum" in that title referred to the IEEE Spectrum magazine. IEEE, for those not in the know, is the professional organization for, basically, electrical engineers.

Continue reading "Spectrum Radio"

It's been a while. A lot has happened. For one, I got a job. You'd think that with the gift of a solid two years to work out what I really wanted to be when I grew up, I'd have figured something out. But you'd be wrong. I'm back to doing the same kind of engineering job I've more or less always done. And because the group I joined had undergone some staffing issues in the recent past, I think I was part of the company for about five minutes before I was completely overwhelmed with the amount of work that had been assigned to me.

Continue reading "Port A"

It's no secret that I'm a fan of Anthony Bourdain, so it'll come as no surprise that I've very much enjoyed reading his latest book, Medium Raw. In reading through my review of The Nasty Bits in 2008, I realize that a lot of what I could say about this book will sound the same. He's older, wiser, still snarky, still humble. But this is the better work, and I'll do my best to tell you why I loved it so.

Continue reading "Medium Raw"

When one thinks of wine country, one rarely thinks of Texas. However, according to the literature supplied by  Go Texan, there are actually eight designated viticultural areas in the state, with the Hill Country area being the second largest in the United States. It was our recent good fortune to be invited to the Texas Two-Sip Dinner at Jack Allen's Kitchen.

Continue reading "Texas Two-Sip"

I hate licorice. There, I said it. You'd think I'd be totally into the strange black rope-like candy that is, against all aesthetic evidence, edible, but I'm not. I do, however, find that I enjoy food items with licorice-like flavors. Fennel, for instance, is lovely. Star anise is an excellent flavoring. And it turns out that if the variety's right, I even enjoy absinthe (beyond the tiny dab I use in my Sazaracs).

Continue reading "Our Meeting with the Green Fairy"

This is Sean's and my eleventh year in Austin, and this is the first year we really did SXSW. South by Southwest is a couple weeks long film, interactive, and music extravaganza filled with conference activity, films, endless musical acts, and of course, parties. We've gone to a sprinkling of free shows in the past, but we've never really done the immersive, four-days-of-music-debauchery that we managed this year. Matt, a college friend and the fellow who officiated our wedding, came down to make sure we didn't puss out and go home too early.

Continue reading "Surviving SXSW 2010"