Woodrow's & Will; Nashville; Superman; Cindy's crew day 1 & 2
6/25
Putting off packing for the Conference, I met up with Will for beer. And then I came home and didn't pack. The conference is the one put on by my funding agency. Their priorities have changed, so it's never relevant to what I do, but on the up side we get a total of $750 to cover travel, room and board, and we're told not to bring anyof it back, if we can help it.
6/26
I could put off packing no longer, so I got that taken care of. Jim and Jeff picked me up, and, just like last year, Jim criticized my choice of travelling in casual attire. Jim dropped us off, I checked my bag (because that's how I roll), and we partook of the first of many free meals. I opted for taco salad, which was... competent. We went on to the gate, met up with the rest of our travelling party: Jesse, Graham, Rebecca M., and that girl whose name I can never remember.
We boarded our flight, and a couple uneventful hours later we were in Nashville. My luggage showed up quite quickly, putting my anti-checking detractors in their place. Graham and Rebecca signed on for an SUV (I think a Suzuki SX4, but I'm not entirely sure), and we went to collect the vehicle (walking past a Hertz Shelby Mustang that looked pretty nifty) and drove to our hotel, the Vanderbilt Marriott (we were given the choice between two hotels and obviously chose the more expensive of the two). There was some question as to whether we should park the car in the garage or valet it, but the answer was obvious to me, as it was paid for, so valet it was.
We got checked in, rested up, got on the hotel's internet connection (paid for!), and tracked down a place for dinner. The vegetarian-inclined ladies weren't with us, so we opted for steak, and chose the highest-rated steak place that happened to have good drink specials, as this year we were required to submit itemized receipts, and spending our federal money on alcohol was verboten. Lavish steak dinners? Sure. Wine? Hell no.
The place that fit the bill was the Sunset Grill. We called for reservations but ended up getting there a bit early, so we started on the first of several half-priced bottles of wine at the bar while they got our table ready.
I liked the restaurant a lot. It was nice but not stuffy, and had a modern feel to it. We started off with appetizers, making it quite clear that we going all out. Jeff tried to charm our waiter into selling us alcohol but billing us for food items, but it his manager nixed that plan.
The guys wanted calimari, and though I'm no fan of it, I certainly wasn't going to hold them back. I tried it; there was a nice cocktail sauce, but it did no more to turn me toward calimari. The next item was a duck confit cigar: duck meat in phylo dough with goat cheese, walnuts, and a strawberry port jam (good thing they have their menu online; makes my job easier). That was different and quite good. The final item was a beef brisket tamale that was also good.
Since there was no reason to pass up a course, I selected their interesting Sonoma salad, which had apples, almond, blue cheese, and a zinfandel vinaigrette and was excellent.
When it came time for the main course, three of us went for steak, but Jeff bucked the trend and selected the truffled angus burger, which I can confirm was great, particularly with the side of sweet potato fries. When it came to my steak, there was really no reason not to get the largest tenderloin cut they had, a 12 oz. It was served with mashed potatoes, but I passed them up in favor of their specialty truffled gnocci. To complete my steak experience I ordered sides of asparagus and mushrooms, which in my mind are pretty much essential.
So the gnocci was wonderful, with the truffles adding a nice, light flavor to them. The steak was, being tenderloin, excellent, and the port wine sauce highlighted that nicely. I didn't finish my sides, but you can be sure that there was no steak left on my plate.
Finally, it was time for dessert. Knowing that it would be shear folly to each order our own dessert, we instead went with the dessert trio. Of course I wanted creme brule, my personal favorite, but the guys talked me into going with the most interesting menu items. The first was the the coconut sushi, designed to visually evoke sushi with chocolate in place of the algae sheets, coconut in place of the rice, and almonds in place of the fish, garnished with candied ginger and chocolate chop sticks.
Next up was the other guy's favorites, and indeed it was hard to top this: a butterscotch habanero bread pudding. I'm not a big bread pudding fan (the issue is partially the texture), but I think butterscotch is woefully underused, and the habanero was just right to give it an nice spicey finish.
My personal favorite, however, was the peanut butter and jelly french toast topped with bananas foster. I thought it was a wonderfully playful and clever take on the classic comfort food of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
We left stuffed and made our way back to the hotel, opting to take a constitutional across the street to the Nashville parthenon. On the way Graham had his first experience with fireflies (reminding me of the magnetic fields song "100,000 Fireflies"). The parthenon wasn't as impressive up close, having been constructed from graveled concrete, but the walk certainly helped. Pictures (which sort of suck, being taken at night with the camera phone):
I wanted a bottle of water when I got back but the hotel gift shop was closed, so I had to get it out of a vending machine. I expensed it, of course.
6/27
After the experience with the conference last year, and with no sign of things improving, we were in no rush to show up. I met up with the gang at the nearby Starbucks, ordered the biggest damn chai latte they had and a bottle of water, and then we went to the conference, checked in, weighed our options for a few minutes, and then turned right around and left for lunch. Of course, we could have eaten whatever crap boxed lunch they had for us at the conference, but with the option of actually going out for lunch, why bother?
Dad had pretty much insisted that I try barbecue joint Calhoun's, which I talked everyone else into with some slight difficulty. I was disappointed to find it had more in common with a chain like Toni Roma's than a mom and pop barbecue shop. Dad had recommended that I go with a half rack of ribs and pulled pork. This particular combo wasn't on the menu, but I ordered it anyway, and Graham, admiring my initiative at ordering exactly what I wanted, went with the same thing. We also had their potato skin appetizers (also served with pulled pork) and fried green tomatoes.
The ribs were good, as was the pork, but it was more... chain good than legendarily good. It was a satisfying meal, particularly topped off with white chocolate banana pudding, but I found it strange that it didn't live up to Dad's description.
We drove around downtown Nashville to sight see a bit but found few sights to see and so headed back to the hotel. Some world cup was watched, some naps taken, and we regrouped for dinner.
Everyone was wanting sushi (most everyone), so we selected Virago as a hip Asian fusion place. It was nearby so we elected to walk. The place was a stereotypically trendy upscale asian place, with lots of industrial materials present in the architecture and low lighting. I ordered a Kirin, my Asian beer of choice, and we also laid into some sake.
We ordered some spring rolls (standard) and thai lobster shooters: creamy curry and lobster bits served in shot glasses. I'm not particularly pro- or anti-lobster, but these were good.
Unfortunately, my dinner of sirloin topped vietnamese vermicelli salad was completely bland and uninteresting. I made my annual effort to try sushi with the same results as usual. Our waitress was a little bitchy, too, considering how much bill we were dropping.
Things were redeemed, though, with dessert. There was not one but two creme brules on the menu: a jasmine tea and a ginger. I asked our wiatress which she recommended and she suggested the jasmine, so I went with that, and made it quite clear that this dessert was mine. It came out with the coffee I had requested, and I gave the carmelized sugar shell the traditional tap with a spoon before diving in. The jasmine was a nice, subtle but surprisingly flavorful accent to the custard.
We walked back to the hotel, Jeff and I stopped off at Tower Records, and then we called it a night.
6/28
As with the day before we began at Starbuck's before going to the conference, but this time we bothered to stick around to catch a talk given by someone that was part of our group—actually, some work that I had been a part of, but my name was left off (it's OK, I hate that little fucker anyway). The bad news was that we were stuck listening to another talk, which was absolutely awful. The work was trivial, boring, and wholly unremarkable: some kind of microarray "package" for MATLAB, and the speaker actually took time out of his talk to explain how to download and install the damned thing from the web. These people are being given funding priority over real research. It's a horrible state of affairs.
Getting out while we could, we bet up with some people at the nearby borders, and hung out until lunch time, at which point we packed up, checked out, and settled on DaVinci's Pizza for lunch. They were running low on crust, so we ended splitting pizzas two to a pizza rather than each ordering our own. After a nice flatbread appetizer and some good local beer, the pizzas came out. The girls went with somethign veggie-ish with "brown sauce"—pesto and tomato sauce—that was good. I personally got the barbecue chicken pizza with jalapeños, and it was very enjoyable. This pizza place was a winner.
We walked around a bit afterwards before heading to the airport and flying home. I spotted this place, which I photographed for LS Lauren (it's her nickname; I should probably send them to her at some point):
I returned, unpacked, and then Cindy, Will and I went for a midnight showing of Superman Returns, which was a solidly enjoyable film.
6/29
I took the day off. I had been away on work for the last three days, after all! I managed to get by Aaron Brothers to pick up a fram for my Band of Horses poster, and for the sheet of paper that proves that I passed my qualifier, which is hanging in the entrance to my bedroom, a nice reminder of a trial that I finished and will never have to deal with again.
I also dropped my receipts off for the trip. My total for the trip was $720.74, a little short of my $750 budget. It was a failure on my part, but not a spectacular one.
6/30
Cindy's roommate Sarah was having a birthday party at a friend's house in that not-quite-River-Oaks-but-not-quite-Montrose area of town, so we went did some damage to the keg, and waved sparklers around. Mmm... keg...
7/1
Some of Cindy's friends from high school were in town, so I went with her to Ross' parents' house in Jersey Village. I was a little bored, but I think it was important to Cindy for me to spend time with her friends. The six pack of Shiner I brought helped, although I felt like a bit of a lush until some others joined me.
Putting off packing for the Conference, I met up with Will for beer. And then I came home and didn't pack. The conference is the one put on by my funding agency. Their priorities have changed, so it's never relevant to what I do, but on the up side we get a total of $750 to cover travel, room and board, and we're told not to bring anyof it back, if we can help it.
6/26
I could put off packing no longer, so I got that taken care of. Jim and Jeff picked me up, and, just like last year, Jim criticized my choice of travelling in casual attire. Jim dropped us off, I checked my bag (because that's how I roll), and we partook of the first of many free meals. I opted for taco salad, which was... competent. We went on to the gate, met up with the rest of our travelling party: Jesse, Graham, Rebecca M., and that girl whose name I can never remember.
We boarded our flight, and a couple uneventful hours later we were in Nashville. My luggage showed up quite quickly, putting my anti-checking detractors in their place. Graham and Rebecca signed on for an SUV (I think a Suzuki SX4, but I'm not entirely sure), and we went to collect the vehicle (walking past a Hertz Shelby Mustang that looked pretty nifty) and drove to our hotel, the Vanderbilt Marriott (we were given the choice between two hotels and obviously chose the more expensive of the two). There was some question as to whether we should park the car in the garage or valet it, but the answer was obvious to me, as it was paid for, so valet it was.
We got checked in, rested up, got on the hotel's internet connection (paid for!), and tracked down a place for dinner. The vegetarian-inclined ladies weren't with us, so we opted for steak, and chose the highest-rated steak place that happened to have good drink specials, as this year we were required to submit itemized receipts, and spending our federal money on alcohol was verboten. Lavish steak dinners? Sure. Wine? Hell no.
The place that fit the bill was the Sunset Grill. We called for reservations but ended up getting there a bit early, so we started on the first of several half-priced bottles of wine at the bar while they got our table ready.
I liked the restaurant a lot. It was nice but not stuffy, and had a modern feel to it. We started off with appetizers, making it quite clear that we going all out. Jeff tried to charm our waiter into selling us alcohol but billing us for food items, but it his manager nixed that plan.
The guys wanted calimari, and though I'm no fan of it, I certainly wasn't going to hold them back. I tried it; there was a nice cocktail sauce, but it did no more to turn me toward calimari. The next item was a duck confit cigar: duck meat in phylo dough with goat cheese, walnuts, and a strawberry port jam (good thing they have their menu online; makes my job easier). That was different and quite good. The final item was a beef brisket tamale that was also good.
Since there was no reason to pass up a course, I selected their interesting Sonoma salad, which had apples, almond, blue cheese, and a zinfandel vinaigrette and was excellent.
When it came time for the main course, three of us went for steak, but Jeff bucked the trend and selected the truffled angus burger, which I can confirm was great, particularly with the side of sweet potato fries. When it came to my steak, there was really no reason not to get the largest tenderloin cut they had, a 12 oz. It was served with mashed potatoes, but I passed them up in favor of their specialty truffled gnocci. To complete my steak experience I ordered sides of asparagus and mushrooms, which in my mind are pretty much essential.
So the gnocci was wonderful, with the truffles adding a nice, light flavor to them. The steak was, being tenderloin, excellent, and the port wine sauce highlighted that nicely. I didn't finish my sides, but you can be sure that there was no steak left on my plate.
Finally, it was time for dessert. Knowing that it would be shear folly to each order our own dessert, we instead went with the dessert trio. Of course I wanted creme brule, my personal favorite, but the guys talked me into going with the most interesting menu items. The first was the the coconut sushi, designed to visually evoke sushi with chocolate in place of the algae sheets, coconut in place of the rice, and almonds in place of the fish, garnished with candied ginger and chocolate chop sticks.
Next up was the other guy's favorites, and indeed it was hard to top this: a butterscotch habanero bread pudding. I'm not a big bread pudding fan (the issue is partially the texture), but I think butterscotch is woefully underused, and the habanero was just right to give it an nice spicey finish.
My personal favorite, however, was the peanut butter and jelly french toast topped with bananas foster. I thought it was a wonderfully playful and clever take on the classic comfort food of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
We left stuffed and made our way back to the hotel, opting to take a constitutional across the street to the Nashville parthenon. On the way Graham had his first experience with fireflies (reminding me of the magnetic fields song "100,000 Fireflies"). The parthenon wasn't as impressive up close, having been constructed from graveled concrete, but the walk certainly helped. Pictures (which sort of suck, being taken at night with the camera phone):
I wanted a bottle of water when I got back but the hotel gift shop was closed, so I had to get it out of a vending machine. I expensed it, of course.
6/27
After the experience with the conference last year, and with no sign of things improving, we were in no rush to show up. I met up with the gang at the nearby Starbucks, ordered the biggest damn chai latte they had and a bottle of water, and then we went to the conference, checked in, weighed our options for a few minutes, and then turned right around and left for lunch. Of course, we could have eaten whatever crap boxed lunch they had for us at the conference, but with the option of actually going out for lunch, why bother?
Dad had pretty much insisted that I try barbecue joint Calhoun's, which I talked everyone else into with some slight difficulty. I was disappointed to find it had more in common with a chain like Toni Roma's than a mom and pop barbecue shop. Dad had recommended that I go with a half rack of ribs and pulled pork. This particular combo wasn't on the menu, but I ordered it anyway, and Graham, admiring my initiative at ordering exactly what I wanted, went with the same thing. We also had their potato skin appetizers (also served with pulled pork) and fried green tomatoes.
The ribs were good, as was the pork, but it was more... chain good than legendarily good. It was a satisfying meal, particularly topped off with white chocolate banana pudding, but I found it strange that it didn't live up to Dad's description.
We drove around downtown Nashville to sight see a bit but found few sights to see and so headed back to the hotel. Some world cup was watched, some naps taken, and we regrouped for dinner.
Everyone was wanting sushi (most everyone), so we selected Virago as a hip Asian fusion place. It was nearby so we elected to walk. The place was a stereotypically trendy upscale asian place, with lots of industrial materials present in the architecture and low lighting. I ordered a Kirin, my Asian beer of choice, and we also laid into some sake.
We ordered some spring rolls (standard) and thai lobster shooters: creamy curry and lobster bits served in shot glasses. I'm not particularly pro- or anti-lobster, but these were good.
Unfortunately, my dinner of sirloin topped vietnamese vermicelli salad was completely bland and uninteresting. I made my annual effort to try sushi with the same results as usual. Our waitress was a little bitchy, too, considering how much bill we were dropping.
Things were redeemed, though, with dessert. There was not one but two creme brules on the menu: a jasmine tea and a ginger. I asked our wiatress which she recommended and she suggested the jasmine, so I went with that, and made it quite clear that this dessert was mine. It came out with the coffee I had requested, and I gave the carmelized sugar shell the traditional tap with a spoon before diving in. The jasmine was a nice, subtle but surprisingly flavorful accent to the custard.
We walked back to the hotel, Jeff and I stopped off at Tower Records, and then we called it a night.
6/28
As with the day before we began at Starbuck's before going to the conference, but this time we bothered to stick around to catch a talk given by someone that was part of our group—actually, some work that I had been a part of, but my name was left off (it's OK, I hate that little fucker anyway). The bad news was that we were stuck listening to another talk, which was absolutely awful. The work was trivial, boring, and wholly unremarkable: some kind of microarray "package" for MATLAB, and the speaker actually took time out of his talk to explain how to download and install the damned thing from the web. These people are being given funding priority over real research. It's a horrible state of affairs.
Getting out while we could, we bet up with some people at the nearby borders, and hung out until lunch time, at which point we packed up, checked out, and settled on DaVinci's Pizza for lunch. They were running low on crust, so we ended splitting pizzas two to a pizza rather than each ordering our own. After a nice flatbread appetizer and some good local beer, the pizzas came out. The girls went with somethign veggie-ish with "brown sauce"—pesto and tomato sauce—that was good. I personally got the barbecue chicken pizza with jalapeños, and it was very enjoyable. This pizza place was a winner.
We walked around a bit afterwards before heading to the airport and flying home. I spotted this place, which I photographed for LS Lauren (it's her nickname; I should probably send them to her at some point):
I returned, unpacked, and then Cindy, Will and I went for a midnight showing of Superman Returns, which was a solidly enjoyable film.
6/29
I took the day off. I had been away on work for the last three days, after all! I managed to get by Aaron Brothers to pick up a fram for my Band of Horses poster, and for the sheet of paper that proves that I passed my qualifier, which is hanging in the entrance to my bedroom, a nice reminder of a trial that I finished and will never have to deal with again.
I also dropped my receipts off for the trip. My total for the trip was $720.74, a little short of my $750 budget. It was a failure on my part, but not a spectacular one.
6/30
Cindy's roommate Sarah was having a birthday party at a friend's house in that not-quite-River-Oaks-but-not-quite-Montrose area of town, so we went did some damage to the keg, and waved sparklers around. Mmm... keg...
7/1
Some of Cindy's friends from high school were in town, so I went with her to Ross' parents' house in Jersey Village. I was a little bored, but I think it was important to Cindy for me to spend time with her friends. The six pack of Shiner I brought helped, although I felt like a bit of a lush until some others joined me.
posted by L. Maxwell Ward at 12:17 PM
