Oracle Conference Recap
Posted on April 4, 2019 by Ching under Travel.
A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to spend some time in Austin for a work conference. These were actually two conferences scheduled back to back in the same week. It was the Oracle Customer Edge Conference for the first two days (Monday and Tuesday) and then the Oracle Utilities Users Group conference on the last two days (Wednesday and Thursday). It was both my first time in Austin and my first time attending these conferences. I really didn’t know what to expect.
However, I did know that I would be done with the conferences by Thursday so I decided to take a day of vacation on Friday. Brian had never been to Austin either so we agreed for him to meet me down there and then we would fly back home together on Sunday and just make a fun little weekend getaway out of it.
Oh, did I mention that that I just missed SXSW by a few hours? That’s on my list of things to do in Austin. Someday I hope to able to attend. In the meantime, the stage at our hotel was still up when we got there on Sunday and didn’t get taken down until Monday. This is the closest I’ve ever gotten to SXSW. LOL.
I also took pictures of my room (because I do that sort of thing, specially if it’s my first time staying somewhere) which was nice and modern.
The room is not that big but it is nicely furnished. I also lucked out and got a great view of the river and bat bridge. More on that later.
The bathroom is just so-so. Not that best, largest or most luxurious bathroom I’ve ever had but it met all our needs. When I say “our” it’s mostly me because Brian actually didn’t arrive until late Wednesday (in the middle of the night on Thursday after all of the flight delays, truth be told). It worked out great because I had enough Hyatt points to cover our post-conference stay and I talked to the hotel ahead of time so they combined both of my hotel registrations (both my conference one and my personal one using points) so that we didn’t have to check out of our room and check in to a separate room for the second part of our stay.
Conference registration/check in had already closed by the time I arrived in Austin on Sunday so I just had enough time to check in to my room and meet up with my coworkers for dinner. That was my first visit to El Alma, the Mexican restaurant that Brian and I were raving about.
Besides the group dinners at the end of the day, food is the one thing that is in abundance at these conferences. They were pretty much feeding us all day long, starting with breakfast. The food that the hotel provided was quite delightful – better than the generic food you get at these things sometimes. We even had chocolate croissants at breakfast on Monday, which I enjoyed immensely. I had two of them. Regrettably, they never showed up again the rest of the week so I thought I should have smuggled six more in my bag to enjoy for breakfast the rest of the week. Unfortunately, I didn’t have that much foresight but I probably didn’t need to eat all those chocolate croissants calories anyway so I guess the universe was looking out for me there. LOL.
Because I love food and collect pictures of food, here are some conference food pics for you to feast your eyes on.
There was also always something yummy for dessert. I skipped the cookies and brownies, though I’m sure they were delicious, but I definitely tore up the flan the day they served it.
I also enjoyed the banana pudding thing and would have had a second one if they hadn’t ran out by the time I was ready for another.
Besides all the delicious food I got to eat, there was also a lot of learning and networking that happened. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to presentations from some of my coworkers. I work with some really smart people!
Here’s Jeff Horn talking Analytics at Oracle Edge.
Kelley Sanders and Chad Carsten talked about our recent MDM upgrade at Oracle Edge, which they presented a modified version of with Antony Rithin at the OUUG conference (the conference that followed Oracle Edge).
Lois Stark and Vicki Barszczak talked about the One CIS project at OUUG.
I learned so much and got to spend time with people I don’t normally get to work with on a daily basis (because I’m in Wichita and everyone else is either in Kansas City or Topeka). Anyway, we did some fun things too. I will post about the dinners and fun activities later but will end it here for now. GNG.
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El Alma
Posted on April 3, 2019 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
I had the opportunity to travel to Austin for a work conference a couple of weeks ago and ended up having dinner at this cute Mexican restaurant with my coworkers on Sunday night. The restaurant is called El Alma and it was just a short walk from our hotel. Here’s a picture of the menu:
These next set of pics are of a few of the dishes we got to try.
The restaurant doesn’t look like much on the outside but it is super cute inside.
There’s a cool stone staircase in the corner that leads to the upstairs patio.
Anyway, I liked it so much that I decided to take Brian there the day before we left. He actually wanted to go to Terry Black’s BBQ, which is right next to El Alma, but the line there was out the door and through the parking lot. We decided to go to El Alma instead. I didn’t mind going again because I thought it was really good.
Here’s a picture of the stone stairs during the daytime.
People probably thought I was weird for taking so many pics of the stairs but I didn’t care. The stairs are cool!
We were there for a late lunch but they were still serving brunch so I got to enjoy some mimosas. These were the best ever because they’re made with delicious mango puree instead of orange juice.
It was a little bit gloomy that day but the weather was nice overall. It was a great day for dining al fresco on the restaurant rooftop.
Their rooftop patio offered a nice view of the downtown Austin skyline.
Don’t mind Brian’s face. He was just a little cranky for not being able to get into Terry Black’s and not getting his Texas BBQ fix.
We started off with some delicious queso.
I’m not sure Brian quite knew what he was ordering but he said it had lots of great flavor and absolutely enjoyed it.
This is by far the best tres leches cake I have ever had. It’s like a cross between a tiramisu and a tres leches which are two of my favorite desserts.
Brian enjoyed some local beer.
It was so great to have a nice leisurely lunch. Brian and I enjoyed our dining experience at El Alma tremendously. It actually worked out that we couldn’t go to Terry Black’s because I’m not that much of a BBQ fan anyhow. More on our Austin trip next post!
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PourHouse ICT
Posted on March 22, 2019 by Ching under Events, Food and Drink.
Brian and I finally got a chance to check out Walnut River Brewing’s new taproom in downtown Wichita. We were there last month for my Rotary club’s final Thursday social. It happens on the final Thursday of each month and we usually support local businesses in the Andover area. Lately we’ve been making our rounds to support all of the breweries that participated in last year’s Haus of Brews (our club’s annual fundraising event).
Here are a few pictures from that evening.
This is a selfie of me and Alison, our current club president.
Alison with her husband and one of her boys, Josh and his son, and Mark digging into a chicken wing.
The socials are a great opportunity for our club members and their families to get together while supporting local businesses.
As an added bonus, we also got to watch our local college basketball team, the Wichita State Shockers, play.
The PourHouse took over the old space that Mumbai Rail (also known as The Rail) used to occupy. I’d never been upstairs before then but it’s really neat. They have a cool stairwell in the middle connecting the two levels.
Not only do they serve great beer, they also have delicious cocktails.
Walnut River makes Warbeard, Brian’s favorite beer. As you can tell, he is very happy in this photo. Cheers!
Here’s picture with our friend Darrin Hackney, who manages PourHouse ICT for Walnut River Brewing.
Anyway, Brian and I liked the PourHouse so much that we decided to return the following week. Here are some pictures from our follow up visit.
I liked the Scotch Eggs but Brian didn’t like them as much. Granted, they aren’t as good as the deep-fried deviled eggs that they used to serve at BRGR in Kansas City, but I thought they were pretty good.
Brian really liked the pretzels with the Warbeard queso. It’s interesting because he likes the pretzels at Wichita Brewing Company better but he likes the queso at the PourHouse better. Out of everything we ate on our second visit to the PourHouse, this is what he enjoyed most.
I liked that they split our burger in half for us. Because we had a couple of starters, neither of us really wanted to eat that much. Splitting a burger was perfect.
You can’t go to the PourHouse and not drink some drinks! So, of course, I had a couple. This one is called Jen’s 87.
The blue one you saw pictured above that I tried on our first visit, when we were there with the Andover Rotary Club, is called Float Trip.
They do “table sharing” at the PourHouse and it didn’t take long before we made friends with our table mates. By the way, the green shirt I’m wearing in the photo is a special St. Patrick’s Day shirt they were selling for $5 which is a pretty good deal if you ask me. They only had mediums left so Brian and I both got the same size. We only got one for me at first because I didn’t think the medium size would fit Brian. It was disappointing because the shirts were such a good deal. Anyway, he thought could manage squeezing into a medium so he tried mine on then and there just to prove me wrong. Amazingly, the shirt fit so we got him one too.
Here’s Brian with the shirt on and a look of “I told you so” on his face. LOL.
We didn’t actually get to wear our fun Warbeard St. Patrick’s Day shirts on St. Patty’s Day together because I was flying to Austin on March 17. I made us wear them the day before when we went to see Captain Marvel, though. I think most people celebrated on Saturday anyway so it worked out.
Anyway, be sure to go check out the PourHouse! It’s a really neat place with great beer and great drinks!
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Café Maurice
Posted on March 22, 2019 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Café Maurice opened at Cambridge Market around the time that we were living at Quarters at Cambridge and yet somehow we never made our way there. We eventually moved away from the area to the Southeast side of town and so then it really became less likely that we would go there for dinner. But, as fate would have it, one night last month, we didn’t want to make dinner and decided we should go check it out. Here are a few pictures of dinner.
We decided the appetizer sampler was the way to go so we could check out all of the different starter options without having to order one of each thing separately.
For dinner I had tilapia and lots of rice. It came with two sides but, as I like rice a lot, I just got rice for both of my sides.
Brian had chicken shawarma and fries. At the end of your meal, they give you a little piece of tiramisu cake which is a nice bonus.
Café Maurice is actually pretty good both in terms of quality of food and value. I’m kind of glad we don’t live on that side of town anymore. Otherwise, we’d probably be there all the time. If you’re ever in the area, this place is worth checking out.
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Palette to Palate
Posted on March 20, 2019 by Ching under Events.
Brian and I got to experience a super fun party thanks to tickets from work and my coworker/friend Ebony. I’d always been curious about Palette to Palate but we’d never been able to go. With tickets at $300 per person, it’s definitely one of the more exclusive charity benefits in town. As you can imagine when I email came through about tickets being available, I jumped at the chance.
Here are a few pictures from the event.
This is my coworker Yuvina and her sister Daisy.
Us with Sierra Scott.
Bonnie Bing and me.
With Brandy (left) and her friend. I worked with Brandy at Spiegel 20 years ago. She and Brian also worked together at T-Mobile almost 20 years ago also.
With Rachel and Joe at our table.
Here’s a picture of the beautifully decorated hall (click on the pic to enlarge).
Here’s a pic of one of the table centerpieces. The tables looked very elegant. They really did a great job.
Our dinner menu for the evening.
The salad course.
Main course.
Dessert!
Here are just a few of the wines we got to try that night.
There were so many wines to sample. I completely lost track!
I should have gotten a better picture of this one (above) because it was Brian’s favorite. The one below was my favorite out of the wines we tasted.
Besides all the wines during the tasting, we also had several full sized bottles of wine at our table. These were the selections:
Out of this group, the Caymus was the one that Brian and I liked the best.
We looked for our favorites at Groves and found them to be way out of our price range! They’re even more expensive than our favorite “expensive” wine. LOL.
Besides the wine, we were also treated to some performance art by child prodigy Elisabeth Anisimow and Le Petit Cirque.
Here are some fun photo booth pics from the event.
This was such a fun event! I’m so glad Brian and I got to go. By the way, there are way more pictures than what you see here. Hop on over to Flickr to see the rest of our fun pictures from that evening!
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