Meanwhile, Down On The 40 Acres...

Last night the UT Tower was bathed in orange lights in honor of the McCombs School of Business students who won the GE Experienced Commercial Leadership Program Case Competition. The Tower is usually illuminated in all white lights , but on special occasions it will look like it does in these pictures. In 1947 Carl Eckhardt helped create guidelines for using the orange lights.

The full Tower glowing orange represents a victory over Texas A&M in football, Commencement, UT's birthday (9/15), Texas Independence Day (3/2), and other special occasions the university president deems appropriate.

I had been waiting for an occasion that the Tower would be lit this way so I could shoot a set of photos for my collection. I noticed that the campus had different buzz about it when the Tower looks this way. I saw many students out stopping just to gaze at the Tower, taking pictures with their phones and heard many just commenting on how beautiful it looked. Pretty neat!!

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

Well as some of you may have heard, I recently landed a new job. After working in the Marketing/PR industry for the last 3 1/2 years, I decided that my heart was still in the restaurant industry, where I had previously worked for 14 years. In some ways being away from this type of work made me realize how much I missed it, as well as increase my desire to expand my knowledge of different cuisines and cooking techniques. After working for a little while at one of my old haunts, I finally landed a pretty high-profile gig at one of Austin's finest dining establishments. Uchiko is the second restaurant from highly-acclaimed chef and restaurateur Tyson Cole. A James Beard Semi-Finalist, Cole opened his first restaurant Uchi (Japanese for "house") in a small bungalow on S. Lamar in 2003. Since then, it has dominated the burgeoning Austin dining scene, receiving countless awards and recognition for it's non-traditional take on Japanese cuisine. This success led to the opening of Uchiko (Japanese for "child of Uchi") in July of 2010. In just seven months Uchiko has been just as successful as it's predecessor garnering such accolades as being named by GQ Magazine as one of the 10 best restaurants in the country and named by Texas Monthly as the best new restaurant in the state for 2010. These types of recognition have put more pressure on me to succeed at this new establishment. Having no training whatsoever in Japanese cuisine has made the learning process even more daunting. So now my off time will be filled with lots and lots and lots of studying. I have a feeling my photo taking will be drastically reduced. Sigh. But don't worry, I will still work in time to cook wonderful dinners for Laura and I (as you can see above). I am determined to master this new and exciting cuisine and can't wait to start guiding our guests through the wonderful world of Chef Tyson's and Chef Paul's culinary creations. I highly encourage everyone to get down to Austin, Texas as soon as possible and see what the Uchi family is preparing for you. Cheers!!

Sun Setting On Happy Hour

I am starting to think that with the right lighting, my iPhone can capture some great pics. I snapped this one yesterday while Laura and I were enjoying a nice warm afternoon on the patio at Cuatro's in Austin. An arctic blast of winter weather has arrived here today so we took full advantage of one more "spring-like" day outside. I had no idea we would be treated to this beautiful sky as well.