Today officially begins my tenth year, and eleventh time attending, SpiceWorld! Hard to believe that we have been here for so long.
It was a gorgeous Austin morning, the apartment is just great. I got up and worked in the dining room, with views of downtown, for a while. Then around eleven Paul and I got ready and went out with Jared, Jason, and Charles to Fogo de Chao for some fancy lunch.
I’m familiar with Brazilian steakhouses, but never go to them being a vegetarian. Fogo de Chao turned out to be really good for me, too, though. They had a salad bar kind of thing that was really excellent, especially their ancient grains salad. It was a really nice lunch.
After lunch we went over to the Austin Convention Center and got registered for the event.
This afternoon Dominica and Paul did some showcase events. While they were at the convention center, I stayed at the apartment with Liesl and Luciana where we watched some Growing Pains together.
This evening was our annual starter bar night at the Handlebar. Turn out was tiny this year. Some of the group tried to start a competing event somewhere else on Rainey Street and so all of the stuff was split up. Lots of old timers, including Hugh who was over from Nottingham, hit the Handlebar for a quiet start to the conference. And of course a quick stop at Touche’s after that. But the real event will be there tomorrow.