Decision Time

I decided and made the announcement today that I'll be transitioning out from the City Attorney's office at the end of April. I'll be able to devote more time to the private practice,which is growing. I think its the right decision at the right time.

Austin Golf Club

I played golf last Sunday at the Austin Golf Club. Its a Coore-Crenshaw design, like Chechessee Creek Club that I played in Spring Island, SC. My friend Skip had told me "we should play there" so I called him and set up the game for Sunday. I ran the Capitol 10K again like in 2009 with my friend John and had a great morning. So I usually think that I will get my first hole in one on these days.... Didn't happen this time but still a great experience. The course is located west of Austin, west of Lakeway, west of Paleface Park (can you believe that racist name?). If you weren't with someone, you'd never find it. No sign at all. You buzz in the gate and announce yourself. Like at Shadow Creek, you go down a pretty drive and up front where your pros and caddies are waiting for you, a la the Bachelor. A memorable thing of the course was the tee boxes(!). Yes, the tee boxes. They are like putting greens. They have special plastic tees to use. Afterways, you are to pick up the tees. Verboten to leave a broken tee behind. I carefully picked the tees up. Then you notice, it sure is nice not to have any trashy tees around. The course was generally wide off the tees and not overly long, both of which I liked. But the greens were well bunkered and interesting. Not overly fast, but still "slippery". Our caddy Matt was a college student in the golf professional program at Methodist College in North Carolina. My friend Tim went through that as well. During the round, I told Skip to look for our friend Ronnie Krist who was a member. Ten minutes later, Matt (unrelated) said "That's Mr. Ronnie Krist in the group in front of us". So we caught up to them at the turn and said hi. That was worth the trip just for that. The holes are named. I birdied the hole # 13 called "Spring" with a nice faded 5 iron to the front of the green and then drained a 30 foot uphill putt. The back nine was harder than the front. Very challenging. I did finish with a good round of 86. A great golf experience. One of the best I've played, a lot like Shadow Creek ( which I liked a lot).

Annunciation Day

Today is the date of the Annunciation, which I sent several tweets about. Historically it has also been considered the beginning of the year, being the vernal equinox. So it feels like a good time of the year. I recall my friend Gardner's birthday was/is this date, and I recall we were ususally getting together for that while in Houston and the NCAA tournament was usually on in the background.

Watching again the March Madness makes me glad we got our new HD TV set up. The big picture is great and it has been again enjoyable to be having dinner at home and relaxing.

I got a good swim training session in from 6:30 to 7:30 this evening. The big challenge as 4 x 150 meters, going 50 hard, 25 easy, 50 hard, 25 easy. It was cool to think that I knocked out 600m just like that. Plus, warm up, arm drills, kicking drills, 2 x 100 m and cool down. Felt good!

March Madness

Tonight was very enjoyable. I got home and decided... to stay home. I fixed dinner, and watched the basketball games. I did some pushups, sit ups in the front of the TV, getting my "strength workout" in.

The new license plates came in and Mike from my office went to get them. I put them on and they look great. When Sarah got home, she thought I had gotten a new car.

I've always liked license plates. When I was in grade school, I used to visit my neighbor down the street, Mr. Bob Cummings. He was a nice older man, grown kids. He had his old license plates from 1972, 1973 on the wall of his garage. That was back when you got new plates in different colors every year. He also had a refrigerator in his garage stocked with Frostie root beer. It was always fun to go over then on a Saturday morning.

When I was in high school, I enjoyed looking for license plates to identify cars of people I knew. I must have known over a hundred different ones. Its like remembering old phone numbers now: "My old truck was PC-1781... now why did I walk into this room?'

I finished off the night by washing Susan's car and gassing it up in preparation for our drive to Austin this weekend. We may have dinner with our state senator while we are there. I also have a great golf game set up at the Austin Golf Club. More to come.

New York City

We have just returned from seeing Spider Man - Turn Off the Dark, on Broadway. It was at the Foxwoods Theater (named after the local Indian Casino).

This $65MM production is ahead of its time. It has Cirque Du Soleil aerial effects, 3D imagery and original U2-type music from Bono/The Edge. Of course, being ahead of your time is not always a good thing. Since those things are relatively new to Broadway (which might prefer proven pop music, big stars and a traditional boy meets girl story), they are still tinkering with the story line and you can tell by it trying to figure out which way to go. It's not enough to follow the Spider Man movies.

We got here Thursday which was St. Patricks Day. Not the best day to be a non drinker in NYC. We had a nice lunch at Il Gattopardo (The Leopard) which was right next to the Warwick Hotel. I watched some of the parade on 5th Avenue.

Friday we went to visit Columbia in the morning and Princeton in the afternoon. We had Margie's limo driver Frank pick us up and we headed uptown to Columbia. It was very Ivy-League, with the info session in the old Low Library.

Afterwards, we headed south through New Jersey to Princeton. It was a good drive and we were glad to get there. We had lunch in the Frist Center and then met at Clio Hall for a large session. There were a lot of people there, so we went to Nassau Hall to continue the meeting. That was a stately building, the Lee Chapel of Princeton. We learned a lot and then Mike gave us a student tour. Tough odds to get in, 26,000 applicants and 2,300 admission offers. :(

Spring Island SC

I'm wrapping up my trip in South Carolina. I didn't realize that this area of Hilton Head/Beaufort was such a hotbed of golf. But it is. We arrived in the Savannah airport on Wed. night after having worked hard to get out of town. It didn't seem like such a bad idea when we planned the trip but it was difficult to get away. Like ripping off a bandage, I did it anyway. Once we got here I was able to begin to relax.

I travelled with Sean O who I had gone to the Masters with last year. We're old friends from the near beginning. He had such a good time last year he suggested we do another trip. So we did, and he had to work to get away, having 2 small children and another soon on the way next month. But we were coming to visit his parents so it was a legit trip.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Savannah after arriving about 11 p.m. A good nights sleep later and a good breakfast we talked with Gautham the manager while waiting for his dad Brian to pick us up. The hotel was brand new, very nice. Brian got us and we were driving north on I-95 for our first round of golf.

We played day 1 at Oldfield, a Greg Norman course. Like Meadowbrook Farms in Houston, it takes advantage of the natural terrain. It was a private course, so not many people there. When we pulled up, another golfer was getting out of his black AMG Mercedes so I talked with him a little. I said I had an AMG also and he said "F---kin' A!" with a smile. The proper response in return?: "F---kin' A!" Not sure why he said that, but it had a good attitude.

The course was in fine shape. Interesting holes taking into account the trees, marshes, bunkering. One hole was evocative of Pine Valley and I asked Brian if he had played there (top course in the USA and the World). "Of course!" I enjoyed the course and shot 92. Beautiful flower blooming as well.

Afterwards we checked into his house and Sean and I walked around Spring Island. At one time it was a big plantation and you can see the remnants of the stately oaks planted. Its a development, but with a large area dedicated with conservation easements so there is minimal development. Dinner was at home with delicious meatballs and pasta and organic brownies.

Today we got up and played at Chechessee Creek Club with Sean's mom Kathy. The day started off cool, 48 F, but warmed up to a nice day. I hit the ball better after a day of warmup and shot 89. Very happy with that. The course was really to my liking. Crenshaw & Coore design, very natural, walking with caddies. The tees and greens were very close together. It reminded me of ... wait for it... Tyrrell Park (!) in Beaumont (!?) Yes - just a very back-to-nature feels to it, but with challenging elevated greens, all with false fronts. Good driving course.

Dinner tonight was at the Old House Smokehouse in Ridgeland, SC, which was a very good place in an unassuming side of the road locations. The chef trained with Paul Prudhomme so it was very New Orleans in style. Just like I like.

Tomorrow we leave here early at 0700. It's been a good trip. Brian and Kathy are great hosts. It's like being with Ed and Kate - right at home.

Weekend Update

After another hard working week, it's been nice to have a little fun and a couple days off. Last night we went out to dinner with our new friend Jerry, his wife Elena, Gus and Jeni, Oscar and Blanca and Sarah and Oscar/Andy (her boyfriend). We went to La Pampa, an Argentinean steak house and had a great time and a great meal.

Gus and Jerry and I are talking about taking a trip to Croatia. Yes, I had to look it up on the globe as well. Just across the Adriatic Sea from Venice. They are world travelers so more to come.

Texas Independence Day

It's Texas' birthday of sorts. Seems like a good day to celebrate. It was Wednesday and the schedule freed up for me this afternoon so I got some good work done. In the area of priorities, I got # 1 and # 3B done and started on # 2 and will work on #3A tomorrow morning.

Ate some good food today. Lunch at Khan's Grill, a Mongolian stir fry place which is Sarah's favorite. Dinner was at the Office, which was a bar/grill. We had watched the World Cup there last summer so it was familiar. Some of the regulars were there again. Fun to spend a little time in bars not drunk.