“Remoted” – Workday 132 / Day 192

One year ago today, I returned from a trip to Austin, Texas after attending a bank marketing conference. It was a great trip. The sessions were interesting and I was able to spend time with a banker friend from Tennessee. The days were long and busy, but there was a bit of room for fun, too. On a nice evening I took a walk to the Congress Avenue Bridge where the bats fly out at dusk but there weren’t very many on my visit.

Ideally, vacation days would have been built in around the conference to extend the trip, but the reality was the dog boarding made that idea prohibitively expensive.

Austin! (2019)

Arrival in Austin was early enough in the evening to do something, but I was too tired to want to. The hotel had a restaurant where I had a pecan porter beer and Frito Pie. I recall this today because Facebook memories reminded me the other day. Facebook memories are great, but dang I feel totally senile sometimes. There are a lot of fun times that are largely forgotten, save for FB memories. 

Yankee attempt at Frito Pie

Back to the Frito Pie. Facebook memories had my post about the Frito Pie the other day. Once that memory was revived, it became a fixation. At 5:15 today, my Prime Pantry order, placed on Tuesday, arrived a day early with the key namesake ingredient. By 5:30 I was scrambling vegetarian meat substitute with sautéed onions, taco seasoning, and salsa. A dollop of queso, a handful of shredded sharp cheddar, topped with a bunch of Fritos and dollop of sour cream, and dinner was served.

By 6:15, dinner was done and so were the dishes. Dang, I love fast food. I have no idea how close my happy mess came to the real recipe due to not bothering to look it up. It was quick, it was good, and it hit the spot. If it wasn’t Marriott good, no big deal.

The Austin trip also included tacos and an amazing kale, butternut squash, and faro salad I have recreated several times. The one regret was not having Texas brisket barbeque while there, which feels like a gross error. A friend had recommended a great place, which had a line down the street when I went by it, but the conference fed us so well, I wasn’t hungry after the days’ events. Such nice memories. It feels like forever ago. Maybe some day I will get back there.