My week: drinks, food, naps, shopping, fun

It's hard being me right now.

I'm back at the hotel resting up from an afternoon gathering, in preparation for the evening gathering. Life, she is a hard taskmaster.

I must mention the dinner I had last night. You see the photo below. It does not do justice to the meal.

Nantucket Bay scallops (apparently only in season three weeks a year!) on risotto with brown butter, truffles and arugula (rocket to us Euro types). Oh. My. So rich and deep in flavor. You know when you taste something and it just explodes in your mouth with flavor and texture? Mmmmmmm. It was savory, but tasted of the sea, with a dark edge of butter and the depth and earthiness of the truffles. I had it with a mild Cotes du Rhone Blanc....so lovely. I was the envy of the table. (I did allow some bites.)

For a starter I had a drink called a French 77 which was a mix of St Germain, a Swiss floral liquor, champagne and lemon juice. I like my drinks on the sweet side (unlike my beer) so this hit all the right notes. Then after dinner I had a lemoncello, something I have developed a definite fondness for.

I did not have a hangover today, so I guess the high quality alcohol was worth the rather punishing cost. (Still cheap by Norwegian standards. I am so screwed as to the relative costs of things now. Things I think are cheap, other people are like, WTF?)

We chatted with some guys who were here from Kansas for the football game, but when one of them turned out to be a total "Woo guy", I was so outta there. (You know what a "woo guy" is, don't you? One of those annoying yutzes who runs around when he's dunk, high fiving everyone and yelling "WOOOO!!!" at the top of his lungs. I tend to run when I meet woo guys. Quickly.)

Oh and another thing: I have never been into football. Ever. I never went to a UT football game. I just never saw the point of the football obsession. (Rugby however, I am a fan of. Oh those muscles and heaving thighs. But I have mentioned that before.) It seems there is a game in Austin this weekend because the hotel is overrun with people in burnt orange t shirts and funny longhorn hats all drinking and corralling their children. It is a very different place in feeling from last weekend, which was Wedding Central.

Let's hope UT wins, because then everyone will be in a good mood.