Austin

Was across to Austin for a couple of day, just great city to visit, have seen the local Capitol Hill on the local news but not in real and it was impressive.

Also the visit to some of the restaurants, we had brunch at a place with a great back yard, the name of the place I am not sure if I remember correct, but something like Old Pecan Street Cafe. Tried to look up at Google Earth but for a change I could not find what I was looking for and…I did not take a picture as I did at Chez Nous.

I am sure, when we get back to Austin that we will be back to both places to eat, if it is Sunday we will have brunch and I get my Bloody Mary and Egg Benedict.

At Chez Nous we had some fantastic cooked trout. The pate we had as starter just melted on out tongue in addition to the desert as well as the rose wine we had.

It was too late for coffee so a glass of Pineau Francois to round off a good dinner. It was new for us and something between cognac and amaretto. Not the same alcohol content, but not far off, loved it.

When Laila was in meeting today I could enjoy some great local pancake recommended but the waitress, and it hold, with blueberry it was the best pancakes in US for until now, not firm just could as I enjoy them, melt on my tongue.

Will be back to Red River Café and have more of them, good luck to the waitress just has few months until she finish her studies. She had been to Uppsala in Sweden and wanted to see the famous Pulpit Rock wish her a great stay in Norway when she manages to get there.

Time to remember

Time to remember

Everyone is asking what did you do, and what place was you at when it happen.

It is easy to remember what happen, when happen and where I was. Just moved to Sandefjord on a project for BP. In an office together with a Dutch engineer it was devastating to follow the news. Also at that time I had a friend at Long Island working for Cosco and I had first hand news directly across during the afternoon.

Everyone was in shock and it was strange to talk with friends that work at the site in the months after cleaning up. In November I was across for Thanksgiving and passed the site as well, the impressions is burned into my mind.

A couple of years later I passed the site again and took this picture that for me make me remember the strong thoughts and the strong impressions from that day.

Houston Astros

Been there done that unless we will have visitors that would like to og to a game. Yes I am talking about Baseball.

Along with friends from Statoil in Houston and their Calgary office we headed for the Houston Astros – Pittburg Pirats.

It was fun, but disappointing with the lack of people going to the game. I thought there was more supporters to these games, maybe in the weekends or it was due to the lack of performance from Houston Astros. With double of losses compared to wind they are on the bottom on the series.

But yesterday it was a need team on the field. They secured a great 8 – 2 win and we could go home pleased to see that they can perform as well, or was it due to us?

The great enjoyment of the evening was that we needed to show ID to get bear, ok I am 29 in my heart, but I have to admit that I and my wife have passed the half way to 100 years and the rest with us ok is a “bit” younger, but not in the range close to 21.

If it was a compliment or not, no I do not think so, talking about a different culture, rules and regulation and they follow it.

Houston Astros

It was a great to meet the guys and watch the game together, but sure we will do something different next time, football season starts soon and I look forward to that.

When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead

Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man by Jerry Weintraub, Rich Cohen

"I am not the person who focuses on directors of the movie, so I was more than surprised about the book I bought.

 A book store or 400 is going out of business and sales are up. My wife needed book to enjoy along the pool, so why shouldn’t I have one as well.

Our taste is different and for me ending up with the life of Jerry Weintraub.

A biography I enjoyed, or rather more than enjoyed. I had never heard about the guy, but this guy knows business, who to do business and his position with people make the business.

Not only that, but along with small stories of all the people who he got to know in a life time from Elvis, Frank Sinatra and John Denver to Arnold Hammer.

It is funny, easy to read and can be used or even more, it would be great to have him as a mentor in any business carried out. Buy it, read it and enjoy it."

RUSACK WINERY

Some have been reading my blog from the road trip in California and the visits to different wineries.

Now it is time to look back, and we during the weeks bring to the table some of the wine we brought back and taste again, drink and enjoy or find out that we preferred some other than the latest.

Yesterday was a day off from the gym, it is Wednesday and Sunday we are off, so I can prepare dinner on forehand and have ready either a white or rosé cooled down or a red from the shelf.

Laila wanted as many days before a Rosé, I guess we both got hooked on to it on our trip in July so the next from our collection from California was a bottle of RUSACK rosé. The grapes come from a number of different vineyards throughout Santa Barbara County. RUSACK Rosé is created from selected Syrah, Sangiovese and Grenache grapes, which are harvested at a peak maturity and earmarked for the Reserve program.

Prior to fermentation, a small percentage of “blush” colored juice is set aside, while the resulting concentrated juice continues on the path to a Reserve release. This unique process leaves them with a delightfully intense Rosé wine perfect for those lighter moments in life. Only 442 cases were produced of the 2010, and it has an aging potential, but we will enjoy its youth.

Driving to RUSACK (http://www.rusackvineyards.com/about.html) with Brigitte Guehr from Mirabelle Inn in Solvang where we stayed and she was arranging a wine visit to four wineries, this was maybe the one to remember. The view on the road to get there, the view as we had our lunch pack there, so enclosed some pictures to show what we enjoyed.

Bottle Shock

Another weekend is passed and even it was smaller changes to our day to day life we again could enjoy the sun at the pool, or was it the pool we enjoyed in the heat. Today I am still counting the days of 100F degree ++. We come to day 22 of august a record in day in a row and equal to amount of day in a year with that amount of day, 32 in total.

Two days with relax and no activity in the gym, hi need to get back today if I am going to keep up with my 5 days a week in the gym.

So when the time for sun and the pool was up on Saturday we could enjoy our lunch.

Yes it was the standard lunch as we have on Saturdays, Caesar Salad and the Prosciutto Pizza and a bottle of Prosecco.  Getting home we first went to Red Mango

for desert, ice-cream watching some young ladies at a birthday party

before we got home and could pick up the 3 movies I had ordered on Amazon.

One of them for a good reason, Bottle Shock, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYs0kblXToA) was shot at one of the wineries we visited on our Californian road trip. Chateau Montelena (http://www.montelena.com) was a fantastic place even we did not get to see it all in the movie.

However the story is about when Napa wine hit France and in a blind tasting got recognized by Europe. It was a sweet story and it was even more interesting now when we had been there and had learned so much about the hard work the guys at the wineries put into the process. It was not an Oscar, but it was fun to watch, and Saturday there was no movie at our regular movie theater so good timing.

When we visited TTR (http://www.tastingroomwines.com/our_locations/city_centre/index.php)    on Saturday we had a peak on the Brunch menu, and got so tempted we headed back on Sunday to try it out.

Sunday is Mimosa day and Bloody Mary, but this Sunday it was just Mimosa and they tasted great. Both the lunch time for us and the Brunch time is in the afternoon so it covers our dinner, and just some Wasa flat bread in the evening.

Laila picked the Fried Egg Sandwich with Bacon, tomato, garlic aioli, Swiss cheese, grille Tuscan bread and fries.

I picked The Ultimate Steak and Eggs with Poached Egg, grilled Flank steak & bread, truffle Hollandaise.  They had added a lot of salad, a bit too much. The poached egg was not floating when I cut into them, too much cooked and where was the Hollandaise, almost nothing that could ease the dry bread and medium cooked steak that was more than medium cooked.

As many, I do not complain, but this time I had to advise the waiter that it was not to the expected finish from the kitchen and as I have learned to know the manager it will be easier to go back and tell him as he was not there yesterday. We will be back for lunch on Saturday, and if it will be brunch I will go for the Fried Egg Sandwich, I had a taste and that was real good.

Football back

And I mean real football and not soccer. Yesterday was first pre-season game with Houston Texans’ and New York Jets playing at Reliant Stadium in Houston, also covered on TV. I lost 1’st quarter, Laila working late and when she was home dinner needed to be served, part of my duty. But then I could sit down and enjoy a well deserve d victory by the Texans’

Chris Ogbonnaya caught a touchdown pass from Matt Leinart and ran for the winning score in the fourth quarter of the Texans’ 20-16 win. The regular starters only played the first quarter, saving them for more important games when season starts, but many of the new comers did well like the seventh-round draft pick Greg McElroy, the former Alabama star.

It was a warm evening so they had to put the roof on at Reliant Stadium. It was day 15 with above 100F and another 8 to come according forecast. Houston has to go back to 1980 to have more so this time the record will be smashed. Another record up to be beaten is how many days during the year will be above 100F, it was 1980 that had 32 and we are at 26, someone who had a bad summer?

Now we have water restriction in Houston. Resident in Houston face fines after the city issued mandatory water conservation measures. City Council approved moving to stage 2 of the city’s conservation plan Monday because of the severe drought and continuously decreasing water levels in Lake Houston.

Under stage 2, residents are only allowed to water between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. However with even-numbered addresses are allowed to water on Sunday and Thursdays, while odd-numbered addresses are allowed to water on Saturdays and Wednesdays.

Watering during times other than those specified may result in fines of hundreds of dollars.

Last challenge for the day is when you are out driving, I am not sure if it is due to lack of water or other reasons, but be aware of crossing Alligators. A wayward alligator was struck and killed on SH 288 early Sunday morning. A family had their car disabled during the encounter with the 10-foot alligator. The alligator died and good to have animal control around who could remove the “sweet” animal.

Another special day

Special in many ways, first of all who calls me in the middle of the night and cannot understand when they call an American number 2am in the morning there will be no responds just a guy not please waking up.

And so Google to buy Motorola Mobility today,

so now I am in bed with Google then? Must be something good coming out of this when two UD giants put their clever brains together, I have avoided I-Phone and Apple. I may change, but this is the day I will see what will happen.
Money in the market so what will happen next, Microsoft to buy Nokia?

Saturday we was at the Movie again as most Saturdays. This Saturday it was “The Help” we wanted to watch. Laila had read the book, and looked forward to see the movie. I did not know too much about it, but a lot of advertising gave me an understanding what I could expect.
What I did not expect was my thoughts after the movie. The Help is about  African American Maids working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi during the early 1960’s.

The novel is told from the point of view of three narrators: Aibileen Clark, a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children, and who has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson, an African-American maid whose back-talk towards her employers results in her having to frequently change jobs, exacerbating her desperate need for work as well as her family's struggle with money; and Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, a young white woman and recent college graduate who, after moving back home, discovers that a maid that helped raise her since childhood has abruptly disappeared and her attempts to find her have come to naught. The stories of the three women intertwine to explain how life in Jackson, Mississippi revolves around "the help", with complex relations of power, money, emotion, and intimacy tying together the white and black families of Jackson.

So what was my thoughts after the movie, sitting there as the movie was finished I was thinking about I was now in the near area (southern part of the US) where this happened. How the African American women were treated and it is just 50 years and less since it happened. Is it still happening? I don’t think so, but still this region is ultra conservative and it is shown with the local Texan Governor Rick Perry now going to be in the race to be the next Republicans Presidential candidate. I will stay away to comment more on the local politic as my cultural differences crash a bit with what I see and hear around here.

I better focus on Bloomberg news and listen to the comments on Google buying Motorola and looking for any company that will invest in Innowind so we can prove our innovation to the world.