After surviving the crazy weather on Sunday, it was back on the bus down to Austin on Monday. Diana was kind enough to drop me off on her way to downtown Dallas. Having caught up on work emails and the like pretty quickly, I was able to spend the rest of the 3 hour journey reading. Several New Yorker magazines were waiting for me amidst the mail stack in Dallas and I worked my way through some of those on the drive. I smiled at this typical New Yorker cartoon as it reminded me of losing to McD at the puzzle yesterday:
My arrival at the Catherine on Monday night was greeted by six packages that needed hauling up to the apartment. Thank goodness for the hotel valet style trolley that they make available. This time most of the boxes were of my own doing – cushions, a painting, and a lampshade to finish out my interior decorating. I think they all look quite nice.
After work on Tuesday I enjoyed a dinner with colleagues Heather, Vinod and Jeff at Shady Grove. The hatch chile sauce grilled chicken is my favourite.
Patty, Brent and Diana all arrived in Austin on Thursday for a long weekend. They share our love for good and interesting food, and we ate well all weekend long.
The dining extravaganza started at Peche with steak tartare, deviled eggs, and an excellent duck dish that McD and I shared.
John “Papa” Gros, an excellent New Orleans keyboard player, was performing at the legendary Antone’s club when we finished dinner. He has a great funky sound and a band that does a wonderful job on the New Orleans classics. Fortunately we did a lot of walking every day of the weekend to counteract all the excellent food and drinks consumed..
Antone’s was very quiet and so we were able to move around easily and enjoy the band. Here’s a video of “Papa” Gros doing “Tipitina”, the Professor Longhair classic:
Work called me to the office on Friday morning and Diana was busy with calls. Patty and Brent entertained themselves with a South Congress ramble – they made it at least as far as Torchy’s tacos. It’s so nice being able to walk to so many interesting places. For dinner, Brent fancied some good Mexican and our combined research indicated that ATX (Austin, Texas) Cocina might be a good destination.
We walked across the 1st Street bridge to find an hour wait at ATX Cocina. No issue, Diana and I went around the corner to Le Politique (a very nice French restaurant find) for a drink while Patty and Brent did some shopping. Dinner was well worth the wait. Brent was quite pleased to find the entire menu gluten free – go nuts, have whatever you want. The dishes were all very fresh, interesting, and with excellent sauces. A really creative and different menu in a very modern and popular setting.
After the walk back, we rewarded ourselves with a drink at the Catherine sky bar. It was a perfect evening for the sky bar and we enjoyed looking over the “Urban Old Skool” music festival going on next door at Auditorium Shores.
Saturday started with workouts and some of my special breakfast tacos, which seemed to be well received. We enjoyed looking down on the “National Taco Championship” in the parking lot of the Austin American Statesman. This not only included a taco championship, but also Mexican wrestling and a chihuahua beauty parade. You can almost spot the wrestlers with their masks in the picture.
Shortly after this, things started to come off the rails a bit. The VW Passat has a feature that prevents clowns from locking their car keys in the trunk. Honestly, I’ve seen it in action a few times – the trunk just pops back up when you try to close it. Not this time – my jacket with keys in the pocket was firmly locked in the trunk. “Where are the spare keys?”, I hear you asking. In Dallas – so not too convenient.
After some solid huffing and puffing between Diana and me, the trio walked into downtown Austin for shopping while I called AAA. Less than an hour later things were starting to get back on the rails. The AAA tow truck driver had the door opened within a minute of arrival and the interior trunk button did not require the engine to be on to operate. Whew!
I drove over to downtown to pick up the shoppers who had spent quite a bit of money on jewelry and ceramic bats. We had a small naming contest for the blue ceramic bat that now nests in our desk area. After some initial rejections, Brent came up with a winner. “He’s into the blues, so he must be Bats Domino”. Perfect! And another example of that amazing piece of human anatomy that is Brent’s brain.
We had lunch at the original Taco Deli just before it closed for the day at 3pm and then paid a brief visit to my office. Then we had time for a quick stop at Cosmic coffee before heading back to get ready for dinner.
Dinner was at Juliet Italian, which fortunately is almost a mile walk from the Catherine. We all loved our food and had lots of leftovers to carry home. The cioppino was a particular highlight and I loved my mushroom fettuccine. A night at Juliet wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the Carpenter next door to play a record. This time, Al Green was Patty’s choice.
Sunday morning was a repeat of Saturday morning and then we walked down to El Alma for brunch. What a great place with an excellent menu. Diana and I split the benedict with corn cake, chipotle hollandaise, and crab (ridiculously good) and a side of mushroom stuffed empanadas.
After brunch we attended a “special event” – the annual Austin kite festival. Diana bought me a kite on the walk along Barton Springs to Zilker Park and I had a great time joining the thousands of other folks enjoying kite flying. What type of kite do you think would be most appropriate for an Austin festival?
Did you guess on a kite type? Here it is:
Yes – it’s a bat with a nice long tail. Here’s a view of all the other kites. Lots of very impressive flying machines.
On the walk back to the apartment, I came across this sign. What are your thoughts?
And then we posed the girls next to Patty’s favourite food truck.
After the long walk back (at least a mile and a half), we enjoyed a low key dinner and a movie. Then we ventured across the street to see if we could see the bats flying for the first time. There is a colony of over 500,000 bats that nest under the Congress Street bridge and are quite the tourist attraction. No bats flew on Saturday night due to the cold, blustery weather and so we weren’t sure we’d see any on Sunday either. The sun had almost set by the time the first few bats ventured out and then many more of them took flight. It’s tough to capture them in a photo due to the flight speed but you can see some little smudges (if you zoom way in) in the picture where they are moving.
This boat was positioned directly in the flight path while the bats emerged – good way to see the show.
We shut things down pretty early on Sunday night since we had a 5:30am start on Monday morning.
What a lovely visit we had with our first Austin overnight guests. We’re ready for the next set – get your dates booked early!
I listened to “Carolina Confessions” by the Marcus King Band on the bus down to Austin and this song really caught my attention (the entire album is very good):
I always forget about Joan Armatrading when selecting some music to play. Very silly of me because whenever she shows up on a playlist I remember how much I’ve missed hearing her unique sound. Here’s an example from a Spotify playlist this week:
This piece from Joe Henderson is recorded live at the Village Vanguard (I used to love visiting this joint when travelling to New York) and features the amazing Ron Carter (regular readers will remember my rave review of his concert at Birdland last year) on bass. I love the bass chords that he constructs.
This song popped up on an episode of Billions that I was watching on TV. They typically use interesting music throughout the show.
And here’s another one from Billions (later in the same show) from the excellent Little Steven. Guitar player for whom?
If you didn’t know – Little Steven Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren have been the guitar players for Bruce Springsteen for many years.
Baby Penguin (BP) was my company in Austin Monday through Thursday while McD toiled away in Dallas. I found a new coffee shop reasonably close to the office, Trianon Coffee, and guess what? They serve TacoDeli breakfast tacos – perfect! I’ll have a Jess Special please. What’s that you ask? A delicious mix of eggs, cheese, avocado and some peppers.
have dinner with my boss and me. Our new colleague Damon joined as well. We started with a drink at the apartment Sky Bar and then walked across the 1st Street bridge to III Forks for a delicious steak dinner. Thanks Ron! What a great time we had reminiscing on work experiences, folks we worked with, and just generally catching up. We finished up at the apartment with some music and banter.
My favourite sunrise this week was Wednesday morning and yes, I was awake in time to see it after all the fun with the boys the night before. Pretty impressive I think.
We met Jens and Glenda for dinner on Saturday night at a restaurant that was new to us – Mexican Bar Co. at Willowbend mall. The food and company were excellent. We spent over 3 hours catching up on all that had happened in our lives in the 4 or 5 months since Jens’ 60th birthday party. I enjoyed a perfect chile relleno and elote (Mexican style corn on the cob with aioli). I had the leftovers just before finishing up this post.
listening to music. A couple of light rain showers, while the sun was out and the sky clear blue, interrupted us for a few minutes at a time. I went inside to take a shower before dinner and heard the tornado sirens going off – time to get out, put on some clothes and check the TV weather update. We believe the siren was warning us of heavy hail approaching. Heavy indeed:
I thoroughly enjoyed “The Weight of a Piano” by Chris Cander this week. Cander lives in Houston and has been a writer in residence for Writers in the Schools there. She also stewards several Little Free Libraries in her community.
The final two pages of the book are a piece of piano music named “Die Riese” (The Trip). I just tried out the first few bars and it’s a pleasant piece that builds in speed and intensity. The piece is in B major with 5 sharps – not my favourite as I typically play pieces with 3 or less flats and sharps.
I just finished up “Infinite Tuesday” by Michael Nesmith. There’s a special prize for the first of you to tell me what he’s most famous for. No takers? Ok, I’ll tell you – he was one of the Monkees, and was dubbed the brainy Monkee. The title is based on this cartoon (I love it):
The next band was local to Austin, Tomar and the FCs, with a retro funky soul sound that we both enjoyed very much. These guys popped up all over town this week – even playing the Yeti showcase next to our apartment on Wednesday afternoon.
We checked out the outside pool area before leaving to walk home and snapped this picture of our apartment behind the fireplace. We have a great view of the Van Zandt hotel from our living room.
One of our very favourite bands, the Band of Heathens, followed Hood and Warner around 9am. They sounded better than ever with the full band crammed into a corner of the restaurant – a great sound job by Sun Radio. Here they are doing their version of “Heaven Help Us All” from the recent release, “A Message from the People” (originally released by Ray Charles):
What an amazing way to start the day!
I escaped work a bit early and we continued our SXSW sampling by walking down to Guero’s on South Congress. JM Stevens, the musician we chatted with last Saturday, was playing with his full band. We enjoyed the show and another taco. It’s very nice to be able to walk to so many lively destinations. This event was actually called “SXSF – South by Soup Fest” as it raised money for various Austin charities. This is Stevens’ song “Fire in the Wind” – it’s the one with the video filmed in Iceland.
Saturday began with a workout and then crossword and coffee – nice to get back into that routine. We’ve been sampling all the independent local coffee shops and this time chose Irie Bean Coffee on South Lamar which had a nice rear patio.
We had a Saturday dinner reservation at Juliet Italian and walked down (almost a mile) to House Wine next door before eating. Guess what? Yes, another music showcase underway. We enjoyed a band called “Sedona Skies” and were educated about an organization named “Women Crushing Music”. WCM helps aspiring female singer songwriters get ahead in the music business.
Sunday also started with a workout followed by coffee and a crossword. This time we chose Merit coffee on South Lamar which also has a nice patio – albeit a bit noisier on the street. To continue the reprise of Saturday, we made another trip to Target to get the second chair. This time it was in and out of the car without too much trouble – all about knowing the right technique.
Will sent me this picture (a classic Will stance) with some street art in Oakland, where he was trying bikram yoga for the first time – this is where you do a subset of yoga moves in a very hot room – no thanks!
Lamb Vindaloo was the perfect dinner on a freezing cold evening. I also got some art together for the apartment – a picture of the Continental Club and a canvas of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s classic guitar that he played to fame in Austin. I tease McD that the guitar picture is the same size as her.
I was able to enjoy a late lunch at El Alma, my new favourite Mexican restaurant. The fresh ingredients, flavorful sauces and unique ambiance make this a superior place – and it’s close to both the apartment and work.
Diana hosted my boss at “Wine down Wednesday” at the Catherine sky bar and then we walked across to Peche for another delicious dinner.
On Saturday evening, Diana wandered across the parking lot to get some of the excellent ceviche that the Hyatt offers. She texted me that there was a good musician playing and so I walked over and joined her at the bar. The musician, JM Stevens, was very good indeed. He joined us at the bar after his set and we had a great chat for about an hour. Here’s his latest video for a new song. The video was recorded by a cinematographer based in Iceland at an abandoned air strip and JM’s part was added via Skype.
instruments in his studio and particularly a vintage Hammond B3 and a 1930s era double high Leslie speaker. I liked his description of the B3 sounding like some “fog rolling into a recording’s landscape”. I’ll include a link to this album in the music section at the end of this post. JM recommended Cosmic coffee as a new venue that treated local musicians well and so we put it on our list for Sunday.
Sunday began with workouts, followed by a delicious brunch at El Alma. Diana’s crab Benedict with chipotle hollandaise sauce and corn cake base was amazing.
Diana spent most of the week in Boston for a client visit. It was very cold there and we know that McD really, really doesn’t like the cold wintry weather. Fortunately she had some colleagues with her to scrape off the rental car and get it all warmed up before she joined.
Back in Austin, the guest bedroom mattress, desk chair, and bar stools were all delivered on Monday. I wrestled the boxes up to the apartment and assembled the chair and stools – they look good in position. The good news is that the trash room for recycled boxes is right outside our door.
My boss had a dinner recommendation from his Uber driver and so my friend Issac and I joined him at Lin Dim Sum. The food was very creative and tasty. They are known for soup dumplings but I didn’t think I’d be able to consume those without making a mess – particularly with chopsticks. We sat at the bar and I watched a couple of girls very skillfully manage an order. We shared a number of dishes and they were all very good. I’m looking forward to seeing what Diana thinks of this West 6th Street restaurant.
afternoon. We timed the drive to arrive just as Diana was returning from Boston and we were able to drive Penelope home from the airport together. I laughed as Vinod and I passed the Vonlane bus half way into our drive – I had been considering the big comfortable bus chair as compared to the sporty seat in Vinod’s BMW. We took the Fort Worth branch of Interstate 35 and I was able to check out the building at Gearhart where I first worked in Texas (back in 1987). It was fun to see what has become of all the lunch places that we used to frequent there. The Rig, a burger and steak restaurant, seemed to be a Mexican place. Nothing else had changed too much and the Gearhart building was occupied by another oil related business.
Sugar Bacon in downtown McKinney. We thought it was just going to be the four of us to listen to one of Steve’s friends providing the music, but there two other couples (Brian, Evelyn, Jeremy, and Diane) who also joined. Brian provided some unexpected entertainment when he asked to take over as the musician so that he could serenade Evelyn. I had ribs and have several left over for dinner tonight. They were very well cooked and tasty.
inconsequential details. After that, I became very invested in Tara’s journey to gain an education. When the Holocaust was mentioned in a BYU college history class, she raised her hand because she didn’t know what it was. She hadn’t been in a classroom until the age of seventeen. Her religious fanactic father was dubious of public education, believing it was the way the government brainwashes its citizens. Her mother was not at all diligent with homeschooling and Tara had to ultimately teach herself to gain the necessary score on the ACT to attend BYU. She eventually earns a PhD from Cambridge. The strength of Westover and the sacrifices she makes are phenomenal. This book really underscores the value and power of an education, something so many of us take for granted. I highly recommend this book and ask you to be patient in the first section as the middle and conclusion are worth it.
ay morning and picked up the keys to our new apartment in a building called “The Catherine”. This is a 19 story facility on the south side of the Colorado river in downtown Austin. Our unit is on the 14th floor corner (left hand side of the picture) and looks out over downtown and the river.
Continental Club on South Congress avenue. The Peterson Brothers play there every Monday at 6:30pm. I covered the details on this excellent band a month or so ago so won’t go into too much detail. Diana really enjoyed the positive energy and interaction between the brothers. She just came back to the apartment as I’m writing this to report that she had been chatting with a musician in the elevator (there was music in the Sky Room bar on Sunday afternoon). She asked him about his favorite music venue in Austin and he replied with the Continental Club and mentioned that he had been watching the Peterson Brothers since they were very young kids. Here’s a short video of the performance:
Here’s Alicia’s contribution to the apartment and my belated Christmas present – a Keurig 2.0 – so that I’m all ready to go with coffee in the morning. Thanks for the great gift Alicia!
Our friend Vinod, who’s working with me in Austin now, met us at Shady Grove for dinner on Thursday. He worked with both of us at AIG and Diana hadn’t seen him in 3 years. It was great to catch up on family and life in general over a delicious dinner. Vinod is vegetarian and enjoys the veggie plate at this restaurant – and it doesn’t have mushrooms (one of the few veggies that he won’t touch). He’s one of the smartest guys we know and has an endless amount of energy.
On Friday evening, we walked across the 1st avenue bridge to Peche (French for “sin”, if I could find the acute accent feature) for dinner. This turned out to be an excellent French restaurant/absinthe bar. We loved our drinks and meals. Diana tried a Manhattan with fig foam and loved it. The steak tartare and charcuterie platter were some of the best we’ve had. Our entree of braised short ribs over mashed potatoes and mushrooms was also delicious.
Saturday started with workouts – our chance to try out the new gym – all good with the elliptical machine passing Diana’s requirements. We walked across to Second Bar and Kitchen for a late lunch and had an early night in. There was a lovely sunset view from the balcony on Saturday night.
Sunday started with a beautiful sunrise view from the master bedroom. Diana went down for a workout while I read my book for a while – I’m way behind on my reading for the week.
It was a gorgeous afternoon on Sunday and we enjoyed a walk down South Congress for a coffee at Jo’s – just missing the live music on their patio. Lots of folks were out enjoying the day. By contrast, my friend Greg in Minnesota was ploughing a route across the lake to his ice fishing camp after a blizzard.
I was a bit nervous about my first trip to New York in a few months on Tuesday morning – the weather forecast called for snow, freezing rain and ice pellets. Diana dropped me off at the airport in plenty of time, and sure enough, the flight was cancelled. It turned out that every other flight was cancelled to ease traffic in to La Guardia with the adverse weather conditions. I was able to get on the next flight and arrived only 30 mins later than planned.
It was very nice to catch up with Vince and to hear about his new job as CTO of insurance company QBE. I miss our time together in New York catching jazz performances and enjoying meals together.
Wednesday took me to 10 Hudson Yards, the office of BCG Digital Ventures – a company we are in partnership with to stand up a new digital business. The view from the 46th floor office down the Hudson river was amazing. I enjoyed experiencing the modern, hip office that I imagine is commonplace in internet 
companies like Google and Facebook – complete with a full espresso bar and all kinds of snacks and drinks. Most of the folks working with us on this project are based in Sydney and Diana is promoting the need to visit their home office pretty strongly. She really misses Sydney and would love to visit all her friends there.
but it’s already packed for Austin and I can’t remember where it is. My gift was a book of my blog entries from last year and we laughed when we compared it to the book from a couple of years ago – much fatter. Apparently I have a lot more to say about our activities these days. Dinner of sea bass, green beans, and eggplant was delicious – thanks D!
concert. We saw an excellent show at the same venue from Broussard last year. I thought it was around May but Diana was correct that it was almost exactly a year ago. This time around they didn’t offer cocktail tables downstairs (standing only) and so we had seats in the wrap around balcony upstairs. We claimed our seats and then enjoyed a yummy burger at PhD (across the street from the Kessler) before the show. Can you tell how cold and gloomy the weather is from the sky behind the Kessler?
I finished the book “Let’s Go, So We Can Get Back” by Jeff Tweedy this week. I enjoyed the conversational style of this book very much and highly recommend this book to anyone interested in this style of music.
Work occupied most of my bus ride down to Austin on Monday morning. An AIG colleague, Vinod, joined my new company and I arranged a welcome aboard dinner with him on Monday night. He’s vegetarian and likes Thai food, so I suggested Thai Fresh, a restaurant that came recommended that’s located in a neighborhood close to the office and the Carpenter hotel. Vinod was early to the restaurant and texted me to let me know he was outside. I asked him if the place looked okay. His reply made me chuckle – “It does not look 
good”. Thai Fresh is a bit of a hole in the wall kind of place and is located in a residential neighborhood – not what Vinod is used to in the Dallas area but quite typical of Austin, and part of the charm of the city. He enjoyed dinner a lot and we may have another convert to the excellent off the beaten path Austin restaurant scene. Another plus is that I walked to the restaurant and back – a 2.5 mile round trip that gave us some good exercise early in the week.
I was able to sneak out of work early on Tuesday evening to catch the happy hour show at the Saxon Pub. I’ve been trying to catch David Grissom’s regular Tuesday night performance since I started working in Austin, but something always gets in the way. Here’s an excerpt from Grissom’s online bio that indicates what an amazing guitar player and musician he is:
After the concert, I met another colleague, Jeff, for dinner at Shady Grove on Barton Springs road close to the hotel. This is another classic Austin restaurant that’s been around for over 20 years with an amazing patio. Jeff told me a story about watching a kid who got his head stuck in one of the wagon wheels surrounding the patio, while eating there with his family. Apparently it ultimately took a visit from the EMTs to free the head from the wheel. I really enjoyed my green chili chicken a lot and the ambiance was great – amazing to be sitting outside eating at 8pm in February.
On Wednesday, I had dinner with a potential new partner company at the Carpenter hotel restaurant. I was pleased to find blood sausage on the menu as an appetizer. It wasn’t quite the same as the Stornaway black pudding that my Mum gets for my breakfasts when I visit Scotland, but very tasty nonetheless.
trying to ration myself to once a week now. Jeff and Greg joined me and we all enjoyed the breakfast snacks. I should mention that breakfast tacos from Taco Deli were served before and after a Town Hall at the office on Tuesday morning where I delivered a presentation on an exciting new business opportunity that we’re presenting. I did enjoy a migas taco after my presentation.
I can’t claim to be that smart and driven, but I did score a personal best time on the USA Today crossword on Wednesday during a coffee break- 5 mins and 36 seconds. Things were back to normal on Thursday – over 11 minutes.
This was an amazing musical performance. The band was comprised mostly of jazz musicians with Jon Cowherd (piano) and Brian Blade (drums) as co-musical directors. I have a recent album by both Cowherd and Blade form a french jazz label that I really enjoy and to find them leading the band was a nice treat. Seal’s performance of “Both Sides Now” was an outstanding highlight of the show. Chaka khan did a couple of songs and I was surprised by her faithful interpretations. Diana Krall’s control of 
both vocal and piano dynamics was amazing on her two contributions. Lastly, Los Lobos with La Marisoul on vocals was another outstanding performance. I highly recommend this show (available now on DVD) to anyone who enjoys the music of Joni Mitchell – the musicianship is superb. Joni herself looked very frail (she suffered a brain aneurysm a few years ago and has not spoken or appeared in public for a while). Kris Kristofferson (now 82 years old) also looked a bit confused in his performance with Brandi Carlisle – apparently he has some memory issues due to Lyme disease.
One of our favourite musicians, Delbert McClinton, received a Marquee Star in front of the Austin Paramount theatre on Friday. This is only the third star given to a musician, with previous honorees including Lyle Lovett and Jerry Jeff Walker (see my post a couple of week ago where I talked about Jerry Jeff’s biography). Lyle Lovett wrote, “If we could all sing like we wanted to, we’d all sing like Delbert.” McClinton also received the Nobelity Projects “Feed the Peace” award at the Four Seasons on Saturday for his support of many great charitable causes.
I read “What Belongs to You” by Garth Greenwell this week. I can’t remember where I picked up the recommendation for this book but it was named a best book of the year by over fifty publications in nine countries, including the New Yorker, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Guardian.
I also very much enjoyed the short story “What Can You Do With a General” by Emma Cline that was published in the New Yorker magazine this week. The dialogue and descriptions of family interactions are perfectly done. I read that Cline received a $2 million 3 book advance in 2016 around her first novel, “The Girls”. I’ll have to put that book on my future reading list.
The weather in Austin this week was chilly but significantly warmer than most of the rest of the country. Chicago was particularly badly impacted by the polar vortex with the entirety of Lake Michigan freezing. Scotland had a decent amount of snow and I received excellent pictures from both Merrick View and Aberdeenshire.
The night sky as I headed out to Second Bar was very colourful as the wind began to really whip up. I know a red sky at night is supposed to be a “shepherd’s delight” but this one felt a bit ominous.
I ate dinner at Carpenter Hall on Tuesday evening as well. The wild mushroom pasta and charred broccoli were both excellent. I look forward to staying at The Carpenter again. There is a very good wine bar right next door with 100 wines available by the glass and many interesting selections. Can you make out that the sign on the back of the building, that I captured from my hotel room balcony, is made from corks?
I read the book “Asymmetry” this week. This book had some of the most positive reviews of last year from the New York Times and several other well respected publications and I had been looking forward to digging into it.
This is the first of Ezra’s favourites from Asymmetry. I love the theme from this piece and the performance by Yoyo Ma and the London Symphony with Andre Previn is excellent.
I dropped my bag in the rental car at the Hyatt and walked to the Continental Club on South Congress (SoCo) to enjoy the free show by the Peterson Brothers. This was less than a 10 minute walk and so will be easily accessible from the new apartment.
I had read that the Peterson Brothers were the next big band in Austin and about to make it big. They put on an excellent show that was a gumbo of soul, blues, jazz and funk. Imagine Weather Report, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Miles Davis and Al Green mixed up in a band and that’s a bit of what they sound like.
The weekend was nice and relaxing with workouts, coffee and crossword sessions, and time for reading. We had a nice late lunch at Toulouse in Legacy West on Sunday. This is the place that Diana and Anne visited for champagne and steak tartare on their visit in October. We started with steak tartare and then we both had great salads. My whipped goat cheese and beets salad was delicious.
I read the book “At Home with the Armadillo” by Gary P. Nunn this week. This was an excellent review of the Austin music scene in the 1970s and 80s. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the stories about all the characters involved in developing the Texas music movement. Nunn played in the bands of both Jerry Jeff Walker and Michael Martin Murphy in the 70s and tells a great story about opening for Elton John at the Palmer auditorium, a building that I drive by every day on my short commute to the office each morning. Another story I enjoyed was of Nunn seeing a very young Joe Ely play in Lubbock and thinking that he was going to be a big star. He worked to arrange Ely’s first record contract with MCA. It’s interesting that we just saw Joe Ely last weekend (in his seventies now) and I’m reading this week about how he got his first recording contract.