These are a few of my favorite things

I got to spend the last couple days in Austin Texas indulging in some of my favorite things- squishy baby cheeks, dorky science, great friends, fun with the family and so much yummy food I'm not eating again until Christmas.  I came down for an algae workshop and met a friend from Pittsburgh who got me interested in algae for biodiesel in the first place.  It was at the University of Texas, so we BOTH got to stay with my favorite Texans, Noel, Jessie and uh... oh yeah, my nephew THE BEST BABY IN THE WORLD.  How fun! 

The workshop was fantastic!  We learned SO much, and I've got some big ambitions for when I get back.  I also got to meet some great people, and hope to be able to keep those contacts.  And frankly I've been fighting the urge all day to stop playing with Tyler to check my email, make some calls to some people, look up some things online... my excitement over this workshop will still be available after Tuesday- Tyler's lovely little cheeks will be thousands of miles away by then.  Prioritize.  My former coworker/classmate Karen is one of my favorite people to indulge in this type of dorkitude with, she is even more excited and motivated and forward thinking about turning a PhD in yeast into a career in green energy, so it's really great to have someone I trust and enjoy so much to take a class with, to share these contacts with and continue to rehash our experience with.  And I got a dose of Pittsburgh news, which made me feel like I'm not so far away yet.

And I did get to see lots of Tyler.  I was a little sad that he didn't recognize me when I first arrived (I was here just a couple months ago), but he warmed up to both me and Karen within a couple days.  The real test will be to see if he likes me again at Christmas. Oo, AND Karen and I got to Babysit for Tyler while his parents went out just to have fun.  They enjoyed the company holiday party, and we invited some other former Pittsburghers over to catch up and watch the baby monitor (the baby was 100% asleep on my watch).  It was great all around.

Once the workshop was over, we were free to play.  We managed to eat almost all the food in Austin: BBQ, Tex-Mex, more BBQ, truck food, giant donuts, Giant onion rings, most of Whole Foods... like I said, I may never be hungry again.  In between eating, we did a little shopping in South Congress, and took a nice walk in the Zilker Botanical Gardens.  This helped us work up an appetite for even more eating- including Noel's rendition of Mom's beautiful stuffed pumpkin, and Noel's famous Egg Nog French Toast.  Yes.  Noel loves me very much.  He even braided my hair every day.  I'm not sure what I did to endear him to me so much, but if he keeps treating me so nice, I'll probably come back next weekend.