Don't Mess with Texas - Pardon me in indulging in a topic on which I'm sure I'll have no feedback or comments, but I wanted to share a few highlights of my trip to Dallas last week for the NSBA Tech+Learning Conference. The first night, I had a truly delicious dinner (sponsored by Apple Computer) at Abacus. It began with a Caesar salad made with baby romaine, held upright by a ring of melted and hardened cheese. This was not one of those cliched, intricately composed dishes, stacked to reach death-defying heights, but rather an interesting reinterpretation of a favorite item that tends to be a boring staple on restaurant menus. Even though I'm tend to avoid seafood, I actually enjoyed the lobster shooters, "six chunks of lobster wrapped in wonton skins and fried, placed in tiny sake cups and topped with luscious red curry coconut cream." Anything fried and slathered in sauce has got to be good.

In between workshop sessions, I also found a little time to go shopping at a new retail/residental center called West Village. Plenty of trendy stores, boutiques and restaurants, but a particular standout was
the Legacy Trading Company, a fabulous retail outlet that unites the gayest aspects of Urban Outfitters and Z Gallerie under one roof.

The last night I was there, I went to the Round Up saloon, where I got to see some gay cowboys two-stepping. I was interested to see the differences between the "old skool" crowd in starched jeans, western shirts, hats and boots and the younger crowd that looked like slightly less twinkish fratboys with facial hair in A&F tshirts. Ah, homogeny.