Red Meat

It felt so good to walk early in the morning yesterday that I knew I’d do it again today.   At 8:30, Banks and I arrived at the trail, and as always, I felt a rush of warmth when I saw the multitudes already there.  I love how fit a city Austin is.  I love seeing the new moms trying to get their shape back; the elderly and infirm, who are maybe trying to come back from a stroke; the serious runners, as well as the seriously overweight, both with faces of grim determination; and maybe most of all, the beautiful and the heart-stoppingly handsome, running with the pure joy of knowing that they’re young and fabulous.

As we crossed over the 1^st St. Bridge, you could already hear the miked presenters at the Food and Wine festival.  I love eavesdropping on the events at Auditorium Shores from the wrong side of the fence.  I had as good a view as anyone of the chef on stage, cutting up a steak and discussing, in painstaking detail, all the special properties of this particular cut of meat.  It gave me the delicious sense of crashing a party, not to mention a mouth-watering pre-taste of tonight’s dinner.

It’s Cindy’s birthday, and the GNO convinced her to choose a really good steak place, not only because we love her and wanted to treat her to something special, but (as we reminded her repeatedly) poor Brian is working off an iron deficiency and is being encouraged to increase her red meat intake.  So off we went to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse (in the history of restaurants, is there a more tin-ear name?).   

Brian, Janette, Cindy, me and Leslie H.

My "cowboy ribeye" -- did they have to call it that?  I swear I took a portion of it home....